COVID-19: Responsibility left with the people

In the first seven months between March 11 and October 4 Sri Lanka saw only around 3500 coronavirus infected people out of whom 13 died. But, for the past one month since October 4 the number of infected persons has surged by over 9,000, bringing the total close to 13,000, while the death toll dreadfully rose up to 29.   

Before October 4, the number of daily new patients remained in single or double digits except for a few days which saw three digits the highest of which was 300. After the first patient of a new cluster was detected at the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda on October 4, the average daily surge remains between 300 and 400 with the number even reaching four digits at the beginning.   

As in many countries an ironic situation has arisen. When the situation was not so serious drastic actions such as lock downs, curfews and holidays were declared whereas the trend now is towards opening of the country while the situation seems to be out of hand or difficult to be coped with. When the total number of COVID 19 patients was not even hundred and the daily surge had been maximum 15, the authorities first announced holidays, then work from home procedures and then curfews while isolating villages even with a single family cluster. When one infected person was reported from Akurana curfew was imposed in the whole district of Kandy.   

But according to the Army Commander who is the head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID 19 Outbreak (NOCPO) curfew is to be lifted in the Western Province on Monday despite thousands of patients being reported during the past one month. The death toll on Thursday was 5 which is a shocking number in Sri Lanka.   

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday explained the reason for the lifting of curfew. Explaining what he saw on his way to the office he said unlike the monthly salary earners those who do self employment and odd jobs have been left destitute due to the curfew, which is in fact true and well known. The government which was so generous during the first wave of COVID 19 to pay Rs. 5000 for 7.5 million families, according to the authorities, for two months is claiming that it will pay the same amount for this month for selected families only in areas where curfew is imposed. 

 
It is not only the poor people who are suffering due to the COVID 19 restrictions. The government is also desperately struggling to face the economic and health issues. On each day government is losing billions in terms of taxes from the corporate sector due to the curfew. Shortly after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assumed office as the President - on November 27 last year - the government apparently having the forthcoming Parliamentary election in mind announced a plethora of tax concessions. The immediate loss of revenue to the government from these tax cuts estimated to range between Rs. 650 billion and Rs. 680 billion and this amounts to a third of the government revenue, according to an article written to the Daily FT of December 9 by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank W.A.Wijewardena.  

Media had quoted Rehan Lakhany, President of Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association as saying that country’s apparel industry was expecting to lose 1.5 billion US dollars’ worth of revenue between March and June alone, as a result of the virus threat. According to another report the World Bank had projected that “remittances received by Sri Lanka will drop by 19 percent in 2020, due to the global crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and declining oil prices.”   

President’s Secretary Dr. P.B.Jayasundara in a letter to State institutions on May 6 had requested all State sector employees to donate their salary for the month of May or a part of it to the government, while claiming that it would relieve the economic burden on the people. Despite this being later described by the government as a personal request by the President’s Secretary, It mirrors that economic situation that the government was faced with then.  
President Rajapaksa during a telephone conversation on April 1 urged the WHO Director-General to pursue with the international financial organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and lending nations to provide debt moratorium or debt re-profiling facilities for developing countries like Sri Lanka, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic situation. All this happened during the first COVID 19 wave in the country whereby one can imagine the present situation.  

Although authorities are reluctant to admit that the coronavirus has spread to the society or there is a community spread, infected people have been reported from all 25 districts and still being reported on daily basis from various places. Citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) definition, authorities claim that the situation in Sri Lanka is not a community spread, since they have traced the source of every COVID 19 case. However, in an interview with the Daily Mirror of October 20, international medical researcher and Executive Director at the Institute of Health Policy Dr. Ravindra Rannan-Eliya had put forward a strong argument in this regard.   

He had said “the problem with the WHO definition is that it does not imply anything about how intense or widespread the epidemic is. For example, A Country might have one new case a day without any increase over time, but be unable to identify the origin of these cases because its contact tracing mechanism is inefficient or not happening. Country B on the other hand, might be having ten new cases a day with this gradually increasing over time to 100 new cases/day, but be able to trace the origin of each case through contact tracing. According to the WHO Country A would have community transmission, but not country B”   

On the other hand, the question remains as to whether we know the source of all clusters without any doubt. What is the source of the Bandaranayake Mawatha cluster? The first reported patient of that cluster, a woman had shown symptoms more than a month after she returned from a pilgrimage to Dambadiva. When a journalist inquired about the source of the Kandakadu cluster, the then Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jasinghe said that the virus had been there for some time and he suspected that it had crept into the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre from Seeduwa. It was just an inference and not a confirmed fact. What is the source of the Brandix cluster? What is important is not the definition, but the gravity of the situation.   

Now, our health system has started to show signs of exhaustion and deficiency in its capacity to cope with the situation. During the first wave when an infected person was reported the authorities rushed to the place and removed him or her to a hospital and removed the family members also to a State-run quarantine centre whereas recently a pro government TV channel reported a story about a confirmed COVID 19 patient living three days in a trishaw as he had not been taken to a hospital. A woman while talking to media quoted the hospital authorities as attributing their inability to admit the patient to the hospital due to the shortage of beds. Three out of five COVID 19 deaths on Thursday had occurred at home, not in hospitals. Does it mean that with around 6500 patients hospitals have reached the saturation point?  

The government, days ago announced that close contacts of infected persons would be quarantined in their own houses and would not be taken to government-run quarantine centres. And the Opposition and several monks blamed the authorities for their public call for divine intervention to control the virus rather than enhancing facilities in hospitals. It is against this backdrop that action is being taken to lift the curfew in the Western Province. That means the responsibility of the people is far higher than what it was during the first wave and it reminds us the famous dictum by former President J.R.Jayewardene that one has to secure his safety and security on his own.