Under the tenure of Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, the ministry was criticized over its handling of the pandemic.
that while doctors dismissed the claims made about the syrup's effectiveness, thousands defied social restrictions and traveled to a village in central Sri Lanka to obtain the concoction. Several politicians also reportedly took the potion.in January.
Last November, Wanniarachchi also poured a pot of "blessed" water into a river after a self-styled god-man told her it would end the pandemic in Sri Lanka,Sri Lanka's daily Covid cases have surged since July and surpassed 3,000 on average in recent days. On Tuesday alone, the country reported more than 7,000 new cases.
Since the pandemic began last year, the situation appeared under control until mid-April when cases started climbing — daily reported infections were on a downward trend between June and early July before the numbers rose again.showed that on a seven-day moving average basis, the country reported 199.02 new cases per million people on Aug. 17. Sri Lanka's total population is about 21.8 million people.
Reported deaths have also gone up — on a seven-day moving average basis, there were 7.30 deaths per million people on Aug. 17, compared to around 1.77 deaths on July 17.to help slow the surge in cases and deaths that's straining Sri Lankan hospitals.The Associated Press reported that Sri Lanka used more than 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine when it first began its inoculation drive in January before the supply from India stopped. Sri Lanka has also used shots received from China, Japan, the United States and the global vaccine sharing program for lower-income countries called Covax.