Sri Lanka’s Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said that the country’s Epidemiology Unit has failed in all the six tasks they are accountable for such as Disease Surveillance, Outbreak control, Vaccination co-ordination, clinical management, operational research, monitoring and evaluation.
“Currently, Epidemiology Unit is accused of the credibility of the morbidity and mortality data on COVID -19. GMOA had repeatedly pointed out that, credible real-time data is the most vital factor for implementing a public health strategy towards controlling the pandemic,” GMOA said in its letter to Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
“The Consultant Community Physicians attached to the Epidemiology unit shall be appointed to head these committees, so that they can work in collaboration with relevant authorities, experts and stakeholders to rectify the current crisis,” the GMOA added.
GMOA further requested the SL President to assign the above tasks to Dr. S. M. Arnold, DDG Public Health Services (PHS- I) and appoint six committees under him to perform the above six tasks.
