How safe are we from the ravaging virus?

The pall of gloom hovering over our Island brings with it a feeling of trepidation when reflecting on what is in store for Sri Lankans in the coming days and weeks. It is unnerving to say the least.

We begin this column with last week’s concluding paragraph: “Where do we go from here? Amid the COVID crisis intensifying even further, resulting in a growing number of patients requiring hospital treatment and a hard-pressed healthcare system stretched to breaking point, is it wrong to wonder whether the government has lost its grip on the current situation?”

 We feel the foregoing is, to some extent at least, justified when considering the rapidly rising numbers of people testing positive to COVID-19 and its Delta variant;the hundreds including pregnant women and children dying of this disease; hospitals reaching spill level; health workers including doctors, nurses and attendants working under severe stress, with several of them also infected; healthcare resources exhausted and the advice repeatedly offered by medical experts that an immediate lockdown be imposed countrywide, being repeatedly disregarded.
It is in this backdrop that the Public Health Inspectors Union (PHIU) Chief Upul Rohana urged the people to subject themselves to a 14-day lockdown for their own safety and that of others. He said the PHIs were bitterly disappointed with the Government for not declaring a lockdown at a time when the highly contagious Delta variant was wreaking havoc across the country.

Mr. Rohana requested the decision-makers to step out of their air-conditioned rooms and see for themselves the actual situation on the ground.He said there was no point in requesting the government to impose travel restrictions or lockdowns because it continues to ignore the views expressed by medical experts and the PHIs.
Echoing  the call by the PHIs, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) led by Sajith Pramadasa and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake have also urged the people to subject themselves voluntarily to a lockdown instead of waiting for directives from the government to do so. Both the SJB and the JVP said the government should follow the advice given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on how best to avert a major disaster that is waiting to happen, if it has not happened already.

Responding to calls for a period of self-imposed lockdowns, several Traders’Associations have on their own initiative, decided to shut down their shops and businesses in more than 40 major towns including Trincomalee,Veyangoda, Gampaha, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Ampara, Tangalle, Badulla and Embilipitiya for at least a week or two in an effort to curb the rapidly spreading viral infection.

Meanwhile, with a healthcare system stretched to breaking point, a severe shortage of ICU beds and life-saving oxygen; mentally and physically exhausted doctors and other healthcare workers risking their lives while doing their best to treat COVID-infected patients and save lives; equally or more disturbing are the number of new cases, between August 11 and 17, surging to 26,591 and deaths to a heart-breaking 1,094. 

In such a scenario, with most of the patients,infected by the rapidly spreading Delta variant needing oxygen, it would not be long before scenes like in India,at the height of its second wave,are seen in Sri Lanka as well – telling it all is a photograph showing a patient being given saline in the van he was brought to hospital, because there was no room even in the corridors.

Moreover, doctors and experts concede that many social issues ensue when a notice is posted on the gate indicating the house has infected patients. In some villages, no one is willing to approach such a house and some of the patients and their families may be starving because of the inability to obtain food without the wherewithal to do so. These are vital grassroots level issues that need to be addressed by the decision-makers.

That said, an Independent Expert Group convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) said last Tuesday, Sri Lanka could soon face a health crisis of “unprecedented” proportions and noted with “great concern” the current surge in COVID-19 patients, having almost overwhelmed the capacity of the healthcare system to provide the required adequate care for the people. These chilling projections have been based on notified cases and deaths using the Health Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit data and the assumption that 50% will be fully vaccinated by the end of August.

Trapped in a pandemic that is worsening by the day how safe are we? Contemplating such a future is a frightening prospect indeed!