Sri Lanka banks on vaccination to see it through delta surge

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Manjula Wijesuriya had COVID-19, but his friends and family say that's not what killed him.

When the 51-year-old tutor suffered a heart attack in late July, his loved ones rushed him to a nearby hospital in a suburb of Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. But as his condition deteriorated over the next few hours, they found it impossible to get him a bed in an intensive care unit.

That's because a test confirmed Wijesuriya also had the coronavirus, and virus patients must be admitted to separate ICUs. All of them were occupied. The father to three died on Aug. 1 — a day after stepping foot inside the hospital.

“It was a tragic death,” said his friend Tissa Jananayake. “Even though he had COVID, he did not die because of it. He died because he did not receive treatment for the heart attack; he died because he could not get an ICU bed.”

Wijesuriya’s death is a worrying sign of how the latest coronavirus surge, driven by the highly contagious delta variant, is swamping the Indian Ocean island nation.

“The delta variant is like a bomb,” said Channa Jayasmana, state minister of pharmaceutical production, supply and regulation. “It exploded in ... London and India. Now it has exploded in Sri Lanka,” he added.

In the last two weeks, Sri Lanka has seen an unprecedented rise in coronavirus patients and deaths. The country's latest wave of infections, which began in April, has been the most severe of the pandemic. Around 80% of the country’s total deaths occurred during this current wave, which also accounts for the majority of confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

While the Health Ministry doesn't release data on how many COVID-19 beds are occupied, doctors and medical associations warn that ICU beds for coronavirus patients and morgues across Sri Lanka...