Let’s together help Sri Lanka make it through the ‘night’

It should never be forgotten that the people must have priority
-Ho Chi Minh

In a further effort to contain the rapidly spreading COVID-19, Sri Lanka’s nine provinces will be locked down and inter-provincial travel ban imposed from Tuesday midnight up to May 30, 2021, Army Commander Shavendra Silva, who heads the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), announced on Monday. He said inter-district movement might also have to be restricted depending on the ground situation. 

Even though it came somewhat late in the day, this move is the next best option to locking down the entire country and causing a further downturn in the economy. The decision came in the wake of a discussion President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had with the COVID-19 task force and more importantly with Medical Professionals, who wrote to the President urging him to impose travel restrictions or face a disaster from a surge in new COVID-19 cases and deaths reaching unprecedented levels.

“We wish to emphasise that all healthcare resources are being overwhelmed, as indicated by the rapid increase in the use of health sector beds and healthcare facilities by COVID patients. Those requiring oxygen are quickly and exponentially rising while there are several awaiting Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treatment and hospital beds,” the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) and the SLMA Intercollegiate Committee (SMIC) said in their letters to the President.
They said they were concerned with the increasing number of patients waiting at home because of the significant delay in providing beds and in-patient care to those who really require them. “In such a context, an increase in deaths over the next three weeks or so will be unavoidable. COVID deaths may reach unprecedented levels and a grave national catastrophe is a potential threat in the near future,” the Medical Professionals said.  

They said there was an urgent need to provide relief to over-worked hospitals, to do everything possible to buy time until at least 60% of our people were vaccinated and requested the President to consider imposing strict restrictions on the movement of people under the regulations contained in the October 2020 Extraordinary Government Gazette Notice on controlling COVID-19; to impose lockdowns on affected areas based on scientific evidence of  caseload density and restricting inter-district movement of people where and when necessary; maintain supplies and services provided by selected essential service sectors and economic hubs under stringent monitoring for COVID-19 infections with scrupulous attention to preventive strategies; authorising the isolation of families at homes, along with home-management of asymptomatic cases, while being carefully and assiduously monitored by healthcare professionals and supplemented by arrangements made for the early transfer of needy patients with pneumonia to the closest designated hospitals; to provide adequate facilities such as beds, oxygen and ICU facilities; strengthen the countrywide laboratory services for diagnosing COVID-19 patients via PCR tests and ensuring an uninterrupted supply chain with a widespread vaccination programme backed by adequate doses.
“If we do not put our shoulders to the wheel, the authorities may be compelled to implement even stricter lockdown measures and even curfews to control this raging pandemic,” the Medical Professionals said in their letter and underscored that if the government did not act now, it would mean even more severe and sustained hardships for the people in the near future.

Meanwhile, last Thursday Sri Lanka imposed a ban on Indians entering Sri Lanka from their COVID-devastated country with probably some of them at least coming here carrying the virus. The ban should have been imposed weeks ago, being well aware of the COVID situation in India amid Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait also banning entry to travellers from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

When will Sri Lanka ever learn? It was when the disease was to a great extent under control that the government permitted Ukrainians to visit Sri Lanka leading directly or indirectly to the Brandix cluster and its aftermath. Now, tourists from India, knowing that the more virulent variants of COVID-19 are causing havoc in that country triggering an unprecedented calamity. The Gotabaya Rajapaksa-led government must in no way allow a similar situation to descend on Sri Lanka, which is currently experiencing a mounting number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths. 

If we are to safeguard ourselves and safeguard each other, we, as a nation need to fight this calamity together and together help Sri Lanka make it through the ‘night’.