UNP Deputy Leader says lockdown must be enforced scientifically to reap full benefits

UNP Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardene yesterday said that the maximum use of the lockdown would not be achieved unless it becomes scientific.

He said that the lockdown would have no use if the country was kept open for the public to roam free on streets as that was not the expectation of the health authorities and other experts who demanded a lockdown.

Any decision on extending the lockdown, Wijewardene said, should be taken on a “scientific basis” as it was aimed at saving people’s lives from the pandemic. To prevent the spread of the virus, people had to stay in their homes. “But if you go to the street and take a look you see the same number of people and vehicles that continue to operate as in a usual working day. The government should intervene immediately and implement the lockdown to the letter to achieve its desired results,” the UNP Deputy Leader said.

Wijewardene said that his party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had called for a scientific lockdown and also suggested the recommendations to the government in a 21-point plan to save the economy which is on the verge of collapse. The need for a scientific lockdown is on the basis of doctors and medical experts’ recommendations to bring down the deaths and to prevent further spread of the virus by confining people to their homes. That target would not be achieved if the government would not convert the prevailing situation into a scientific lockdown,” Wijewardene told The Island.

(Source: The Island – By Saman Indrajith)