Stop moving and COVID-19 will also stop! - EDITORIAL

The word ‘curfew’ is perhaps the best understood word by most Sri Lankans during this pandemic. This is because a good many of them give scant regard to maintaining safe social distancing and a wearing masks. So the whole of Western Province will be subject to a curfew by the time people read this column. 
Have we learned our lessons and have we become wiser after the first COVID-19 wave swept through the island nation several months ago? The answer sadly is ‘no’.

We made some slips. The virus carriers seeped in to the country when foreign travel was permitted. New clusters have been created and all this chaos is because we can’t curtail our travelling. 
Our children must be kept safe. But then again the education authorities continued with having the Advanced Level Examination (ALs). Children were exposed to the threat of the virus, but then again for how long can one keep postponing competitive exams like ALs? 

Given the vulnerable situation in the country the health authorities specified certain precautionary measures to be taken when having social functions. There were some who adhered to these guidelines and some who didn’t. We saw how responsible citizens, as hosts, take down the names and addresses of invitees to weddings, parties and almsgivings and hand these details to the heath officer of the area. 

But we also read in newspapers how a Coronavirus affected father had attended his son’s wedding in Piliyandala and exposed the wedded couple plus so many guests to danger. This is the mentality we have to erase and instill in people instead a sense of responsibility and the urge to read up on how to fight this virus by doing ones part. We’re living in scary times and can’t afford to leave any margin for error. 

We also saw so many people return from abroad and go into quarantine for an additional 14 days after returning from government maintained quarantine centres. But we heard of stories where people under quarantine for the additional 14 days moving about and even attending funerals. 
So from today (October 29) the business hub of the country, Colombo, would go silent. As many as 21 police areas in Colombo, five police areas in Kalutara and the entire Gampaha District under the Western Province have come under quarantine curfew.  

Facebook carried a hilarious post a while ago with a fitting caption supporting a picture of a queue near a wine store. The caption (In Sinhala) when translated read ‘a male who doesn’t have the patience to wait till the wife choses a garment in a clothes stores and his food is cooked and served can wait patiently in the liquor queue to buy his favourite drink. This may be only a section of the society, but the behaviour of its members allows a peep into the mentality of some of the males who’d expose their spouses and children to unwanted danger to satisfy their selfish needs. 

According to the Army Commander people during quarantine curfew hours can’t move about in vehicles, but are allowed to visit the nearby store to obtain groceries. People also have been told by the authorities not to indulge in panic buying. This sort of selfish buying will only create a shortage of essential food items and also deny the less affluent the chance to buy their daily or weekly rations. We need to be responsible and be willing to go beyond the call of duty. 
So let’s support the government’s efforts to squash this second COVID-19 wave. Let’s keep in mind that when we stop moving the coronavirus also stops moving. If we stay at home where can the coronavirus go?