Situational Assessment of Covid-19 in Sri Lanka: Descriptive Study.

Abstract

The recent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, which originated in China in December 2019, has become a global pandemic, imposing serious health, social, and economic burdens worldwide. In Sri Lanka, the first COVID-19 case was reported on 27th January 2020 by a Chinese national, followed by the first local case on 11th March 2020. Globally, the number of COVID-19 cases has been escalating at an alarming rate, with mortality rates exceeding expectations. This study aims to outline the status of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka and describe the trends in the progression of the disease from 27th January 2020 to 11th August 2021. The required data from 27th January 2020 to 11th August 2021 was collected from the COVID-19 situation reports published by the Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, and Sri Lanka. The data was analyzed descriptively for three distinct outbreak periods using Microsoft Excel to assess the trends in daily new confirmed cases, the total number of confirmed cases, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the daily reported deaths, and the total number of reported deaths due to COVID-19 in Sri Lanka. From the identification of the first case in Sri Lanka on 27th January 2020 to 3rd October 2020 (First wave), the total number of confirmed cases was 3,396, and the number of confirmed deaths was 13, with a case-fatality ratio of 0.38. During the period from 4th October 2020 to 14th April 2021 (Second wave), the total number of confirmed cases increased to 92,341, with 591 confirmed deaths and a case-fatality ratio of 0.64. However, there was a significant rise in both the total number of confirmed cases and deaths during the next period. From 15th April 2021 to 11th August 2021 (Third wave), the total number of confirmed cases surged to 243,355, and the number of confirmed deaths to 4,736, resulting in a higher case-fatality ratio of 1.94. The transmission of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka was very high, as evidenced by the increase in daily new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. This underscores the need for increased public awareness and the implementation of more stringent control measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.