Sri Lanka’s death toll may be worse than that of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the severe drug shortages gripping the country, which is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, local doctors warned on April 10. The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) claimed that doctors now have to choose which patients to treat as hospitals run out of essential medicines and medical equipment, AFP reported. “If supplies are not restored within days, the casualties will be far worse than from the pandemic,” SLMA said, adding that all emergency surgeries may soon be suspended due to supply shortages. Nearly 200 doctors staged a protest on April 6 outside a government hospital in Colombo, the nation’s commercial capital. Some protesters held a banner stating, “Strengthen people’s right to live. Declare a health emergency.” In a YouTube video posted April 10, Dr. Saman Kumara, a senior neonatologist in Sri Lanka, appealed to …