‘Our target is to get everyone over 18 vaccinated by September’

A junior minister for health, Channa Jayasumana, called the Delta variant of the virus “a powerful bomb which has exploded in Colombo and is spreading elsewhere.”

Sri Lanka’s government rejected on Tuesday mounting calls for an immediate lockdown to contain a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths that is severely stretching hospitals and crematoriums, according to AFP.

Government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the country had not reached a critical stage even as the island nation suffers more than 100 deaths per day on average.

“Curfews or a lockdown is the last resort, but we are not there yet,” Rambukwella told reporters.

“Our target is to get everyone over the age of 18 vaccinated by September and thereafter it is in the hands of the gods.”

His comments came despite the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) issuing what it called a “final warning” to the government to restrict the movement of people immediately or risk a bigger catastrophe.

“We have given the final warning to the government to take urgent steps to lock down at least for two weeks,” said a spokesman for the SLMA, a professional body of medical experts.

At one morgue in Colombo on Tuesday morning, workers tested 15 corpses for Covid-19 and then cremated them to clear the way for more bodies.

A Colombo magistrate ordered the immediate disposal of 40 corpses that remained unclaimed by the next of kin.

The Colombo Municipal Council began mass cremationson Sunday to clear a backlog after hospital mortuaries ran out of refrigeration space for bodies.