Co-existing with COVID-19: Engaging the community to strengthen the public health response in Sri Lanka

COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in early March 2020. Sri Lanka until mid-May experienced an epidemic contained within 32 clusters, largely due to a well-planned public health response. Following 2 months of partial shut-down, certain control measures are being relaxed to facilitate economic activities across the country. This paper details this public health response and explores how it could be strengthened to empower the community to co-exist with COVID- 19 in a “new normal” environment.