Another tsunami?

Friday 17th December, 2021

Restrictions currently in place to prevent Covid-19 will not be ramped up in view of the upcoming festive season, Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena has said, urging the public to exercise caution. Whether Sri Lankans will do as the good doctor says is in doubt, for they are given to living dangerously. They however are not alone in doing so.

Humans pride themselves on their intelligence, but it looks as though they had proved through their pandemic response that they are the dumbest of all critters inhabiting this planet. Will any other creature with an iota of intelligence court danger and death the way humans have been doing during the past two years or so? Coronavirus has killed 5.3 million people so far across the globe. The virus cannot spread on its own, and it is humans who provide it with conveyance and help it snuff out lives. In some countries, people are staging street protests against lockdowns and other such pandemic control measures. Here, too, most people are seen performing hongi with coronavirus.

Going by the way coronavirus variants behave, it is too early to say for sure that pandemic-related restrictions will not have to be tightened towards the end of this month. Nothing is so certain as the unexpected as regards the runaway virus. A spike in the Covid-19 caseload could happen within a matter of days, sending the death toll through the roof—absit omen! This has happened previously here as well as overseas. Hence the need for everyone to tread cautiously, as Dr. Gunawardena has said, lest there should be a Covid-19 tsunami of sorts sweeping across the country. In 2004, so many lives were lost in the Boxing Day tsunami because Sri Lankans did not heed the warning signs of the impending killer waves. They do not seem to care two hoots about health experts’ warnings of a possible explosive spread of Covid-19 early next year.

It is hoped that the decision against intensifying Covid-19 restrictions is not politically motivated. One may recall that the government blundered in April by keeping the country open for political reasons. It would have been able to mitigate the severity of the impact of the pandemic on the people and the economy if it had heeded health experts’ warning ahead of the traditional New Year in April. Doctors tried their utmost to convince the government that travel restrictions had to be imposed during April as they knew the people would throw caution to the wind and enjoy themselves, creating conditions for a rapid spread of Covid-19. Their prediction came true shortly afterwards, and the government had to close the country. A stitch in April would have saved more than nine a few months later, as it were.

Christmas is a joyous occasion everybody loves and it should not be spoilt. But if health experts believe that stern pandemic control measures are necessary within the next few weeks, they must be allowed to go ahead.

It is too dangerous to leave pandemic control to politicians and their bureaucratic lackeys. It is the opinion of health experts that matters.

Many Sri Lankans will be waltzing with coronavirus come 31 December. Clubs and pubs are already crowded and they will be packed to the rafters with wild parties to ring in the New Year. There is nothing stupider than to expect revellers to mind health guidelines. Coronavirus is a gatecrasher!

Hotels have been struggling to prevent themselves from going belly up due to lockdowns and the present economic downturn. They must be planning to boost their revenue during the next two weeks, but they will have to ensure that all their guests abide by health regulations, or they will be out of the frying pan into the fire soon in case of festivities triggering a virus tsunami.

One can only hope that health authorities will not pander to the whims and fancies of the political authority.