Covid-19 and the Col - EDITORIAL

This year - 2021- has seen an ever increasing numbers of the new Covid variants. It has been pretty disastrous for the world in general and to us Lankans particularly.

The first case of Covid-19 was discovered here in January 2020, when a Chinese traveller was discovered to have contracted the disease. Very soon a number of others who had come into contact with the patient were discovered to have been Covid positive.
The disease control arm of the government swung into high gear and the patient in question treated for the disease, her movements traced and those who had been in contact with her quarantined.

With total cases in the country reaching 100 by late March 2020, a countrywide curfew was imposed. Around 3,506 people, including 31 foreigners were quarantined. The curfew was lifted on May 11. With around 55% of the working population in the country comprising daily wage earners, it meant around 4.5 million persons found themselves suddenly out of job with no means of sustaining themselves and their families. 

Again, to check the spread of Covid-19, all international commercial flights into the country was stopped. But with the country significantly depending on tourism, which makes up nearly five percent of its US$87 billion GDP and the tourism sector in Sri Lanka providing direct or indirect employment to at least 500,000 people, unsurprisingly in the last week of March, the ban were also lifted (Al-Jazeera March 23, 2020).

The strict implementation of government plans helped keep the number of persons contracting the virus down, but a vast majority of the population was forced into the hands of money-lenders who charge high rates of interest. Overall the economy of country too was adversely affected, especially small and medium enterprises which were forced to fold up. 

Today the number of persons contracting Covid-19 has risen to over 332,947 with 5,222 people have already succumbed to the disease. However this time round though numbers have risen astronomically, there has been no imposition of curfews or banning of international flights.

The simple reason - we cannot afford to lock down the country. However an additional factor which prevented the necessity of locking the country down was the rollout of vaccines country-wide, which has been efficiently handled.
The President and his team needs to be congratulated for the professional manner the population has been inoculated. The Chinese government too has to be thanked for the provision of vaccines in a timely manner. This especially in the aftermath of India’s inability to meet its commitments regarding vaccine distribution.
 While the government needs to be praised in its coronavirus control efforts, it has fallen short in numerous connected aspects. 

Sri Lanka’s national consumer prices in May 2021 rose at the highest level since September 2020 with Food prices jumping to 10.3%, from 9.7% in  April.

The prices of most food items such as coconut oil, rice, fresh fish, coconuts, dhal, potatoes, dried fish, green gram, big onions, red onions, almost all varieties of vegetables, sugar and turmeric powder, eggs etc., which form basic needs, rose during May,  a month ago, making lives harder and painful for the people.

Non-food prices rose by 2.5 percent in the 12 months to May 2021, accelerating from 2.2 percent in April, as did all categories under non-food also rose as reported in the Daily Mirror yesterday (10 August).
Costs of healthcare services have also risen since May, with costs of private hospital room charges and the payments for medical laboratory tests rising.

The worst hit has been the upward price revision of fuel prices which are stoking higher inflation in both food and non-food prices, as fuel has a cascading effect on almost every other commodity. Making a bad situation worse were the media reports of medical professionals calling for the re-imposition of lockdowns and other restrictive measures such as stay-at-home orders.

The ordinary folk of this country are hard hit not only by rising prices of basic food items, but also by salary cuts ranging between 30% to 50% in the mercantile sector with government approval.A re-imposition of a lockdown backed by curfew will lead to food shortages and starvation for those at the bottom rung of the social ladder.
We all know times are difficult. But it is the duty of those with political power to ensure, especially the already impoverished classes are protected from the side effects of the Covid-19 pandemic - rising costs.
The queues of beggars, especially malnourished mothers with anaemic children in their arms begging at every traffic light in the city do not speak highly of a caring state.