Being socially responsible and protecting each other

It is getting to be too difficult to keep pace with the rapidly-spreading COVID-19, mainly in the Colombo District, which Army Commander Shavendra Silva, who Heads the National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), has described as the hotbed of the infection. 

He said the increasing numbers of COVID-19 infected patients in the Western Province and the urgent need to contain the situation were the reasons for the Government to extend the curfew by a week.

In our column last Thursday we bemoaned the lack of social responsibility in some Sri Lankans, especially during these difficult times when they are ethically obliged to work and cooperate with the health authorities and the security forces for the benefit of society at large.

We venture to say this against the background of media reports that hundreds of Western Province residents had moved out of their homes seeking refuge in hotels and holiday resorts in the South, the hill country, Jaffna and Ampara during the previous weekend. It happened soon after the announcement that curfew would be imposed from Thursday midnight till Monday 5.00 a.m. in the aftermath of hundreds of COVID19-infected patients being detected in the Western Province and its suburbs. This exodus also took place despite the health authorities and the security forces repeatedly requesting people to remain in their homes as a measure to prevent the spread of the deadly virus to other parts of the country and to some extent at least manage this rapidly worsening situation, which is threatening to get out of hand if it had not happened already.

Police said they had traced nearly 550 persons who had travelled out of the Western Province in an attempt to evade the curfew imposed during the weekend and that they would be subjected to a 14-day period of quarantine wherever they were currently lodged

Be that as it may, the research carried out by scientists attached to the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine and Allergy, Immunology and Cell Biology Unit of the Sri Jayewardenepura University has revealed that the current strain of the COVID-19 virus now prevalent in Sri Lanka is different to the strains that were present in the country during the earlier phase of the infection.

They said they carried out the whole genomic sequencing of the virus to determine if the current COVID-19 outbreak is due to the spread of different strains.

The study was also carried out to verify if there were certain mutations that resulted in the rapid spread of the virus, and to investigate the relationship between the present and past virus strains spreading across Sri Lanka.

The Health Ministry Secretary Sanjeewa Munasinghe said that the latest variant of the virus has been identified as B142, a subgroup of SARS, and warned that this variant of the coronavirus was more dangerous and spreading faster than the previous one.  

He also warned that children and senior citizens were at a higher risk of contracting the new virus, and that people suffering from various illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease and cancer had a lower immunity level. 

Incidentally, the virus has even invaded the Geneva-based World Health Organisation, with its Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus having to undergo a period of self-quarantine after a person he had come into contact with was tested positive for COVID-19.

 “I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19,” Tedros said in his tweet on Sunday night, but stressed he had no symptoms.  “I am well and without symptoms, but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.” Tedros said.

Tedros has been in the forefront of the UN health agency’s efforts to battle the pandemic, which according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, have claimed the lives of some 1.2 million and infected more than 46.6 million people worldwide since emerging in China late last year.

Meanwhile, conspicuous by their absence, during the height of the second phase of the pandemic, are any statements from the President and the Health Minister on the situation in the country, currently caught up in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is worsening by the day giving little or no respite to the health authorities and the security forces personnel, who need to remain alert to stem the spread of the virus while having to remain safe from infection. Given the virulent strain of the infection and considering the number of police personnel found to be COVID-19 infected, it appears to be a daunting task.