Sri Lanka nearly out of medicine as doctors warn toll from crisis could surpass Covid

Emergency surgery may soon be impossible, president told, while protests continue amid worsening economic downturn

Sri Lanka's doctors have warned they are almost out of life-saving medicines and say the country's economic crisis threatened a worse death toll than the coronavirus pandemic.

Weeks of power blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel and pharmaceuticals have brought widespread misery to Sri Lanka, which is suffering its worst downturn since independence in 1948.