Sri Lanka President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says an important lesson taught by the COVID-19 epidemic is the reaffirmation of the critical need to maintain a centralized healthcare system.

Although most of the hospitals in Sri Lanka are under the control of the Provincial Councils, there are a sufficient number of hospitals island wide under the management of the Ministry of Health which can be easily utilized in the event of a health crisis.

The President pointed out that if the health service had been fully handed over to the Provincial Councils, the effectiveness of Sri Lanka's response to the COVID-19 epidemic would have been much different.

The President states that recent experience has confirmed the importance of maintaining the responsibility of the Central Government on subjects of certain functions and education is another area that can be identified as such.

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