An increasing number of doctors and health workers in Sri Lanka are being infected with the Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated in recent days, hitting the country’s response which is already battling the deadly outbreak of the Delta variant. Several hundred doctors, who got infected recently and had received Covid-19 vaccines earlier, are symptomatic, raising the concern about the efficiency of vaccines. The island nation has used a variety of vaccines in its national immunization drive.  

Many hospitals and Covid care centers are now facing a shortage of manpower Daily Mirror reported, that too at a time when hospitals are filled to the maximum with new COVID-19 patients being detected daily. The government has not confirmed the cases among vaccinated healthcare professionals. However, the report cited sources within health unions and the ministry. 

They suspect it was the Delta variant that was causing the havoc. The bed occupancy rate has increased sharply in recent weeks, and in many areas, hospitals are also facing an oxygen crisis.

Considering the situation, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has also written to the health ministry, stating that several of its branch unions had informed them that they had observed an upward trend in reporting of COVID positive patients within the last few weeks.

“Most of them are fully vaccinated (with 02 doses of Covishield vaccine) against COVID-19,” the GMOA letter was quoted as saying in the letter by Daily Mirror. 

Importantly, with the constant flow of vaccines into the country, the government has ramped up the pace of the immunization drive, vaccinating on an average over 400000 people in a day. 

Around 10 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated and the other 40 percent received at least a single dose. This week the total number of infections crossed 300,000 marks, with the island country reporting over 2000 daily cases. After the month-long ban on inter-provincial travel, authorities have eased travel restrictions despite the uptick in cases. 

(SAM)