According to Professor Neelika Malavige of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, the disease is not transmitted from every infected person.
She says the disease is spread by the amount of virus in a person’s respiratory fluid. She points out that some people with Covid have a very low level of the virus in their respiratory fluid, while others are less likely to be infected, but a person with a higher level of the virus in the respiratory tract is more likely to spread the disease.
With such a person, even if the distance is a meter away from a place with low ventilation, the risk of contracting the disease is high, she said.
She says PCR tests are very sensitive and should be done on people who are showing better Covid symptoms and antigen tests are more suitable for people who are not showing Covid symptoms. She points out that the most important thing here is to do the right test at the right time.
The disease is spreading rapidly in countries such as the United States and Europe, and all those countries are currently conducting research to find a cure for the virus, and they need to find a solution to this problem in Sri Lanka as well, rather than waiting for research and results to be found, she said.