Reaping whirlwind

Thursday 29th October, 2020

Attorney General (AG) Dappula de Livera, PC, deserves public plaudits for having directed the police to find out how an explosive transmission of COVID-19 came about, in Minuwangoda, and whose lapses led to the second wave of infections. This country needs more such intrepid public officials.

One can only hope that there will be no political interference with investigations to be conducted. The police already have a lead; some garment factory workers brought here from India are believed to have triggered the Minuwangoda cluster. They ought to find out whether those workers underwent quarantine for 28 days in keeping with the health guidelines. It is alleged that some of them did not complete the mandatory quarantine period due to service exigencies. Records of their quarantine period should be available with the health authorities. One, however, should not be so naïve as to expect that the police will be given a free hand to get to the bottom of it. One also need not be surprised if all documents pertaining to the workers concerned have already disappeared.

Leaders of the yahapalana government are being raked over the coals for having disregarded a warning of possible terrorist attacks and endangered the lives of people last year, when the Easter Sunday bombings snuffed out more than 250 lives and left over 500 others injured. Their lapses are currently under probe by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry. The leaders of the incumbent dispensation did not heed medical experts’ warnings of a second wave of COVID-19, and the lives of people are now in danger, as a result. During the first wave of infections, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) issued a dire warning to the government that the worst was yet to come, and called for stringent measures to prevent a resurgence of the disease. It also prepared a comprehensive exit strategy, which The Island has seen, but the government did not give a tinker’s cuss about the good doctors’ warnings, advice and proposals.

The Peliyagoda fish market is the Sri Lankan version of the Wuhan wet market, and the public health officials and all others tasked with battling COVID-19 should have monitored the place closely. They should have swung into action at least after the detection of the garment factory cluster in Minuwangoda. Infections have fanned out from Peliyagoda to all parts of the country. It is hoped that precautions have been taken to prevent a COVID-19 cluster from forming at the Dambulla economic centre, where traders from all over the country converge daily.

It is also possible that the virus spread during the election time, when people gathered at political rallies, throwing caution to the wind, and caused an explosive transmission, later on. The blame for this situation should be apportioned to politicians, the health authorities and the public because all of them lowered their guard and invited trouble. Only the Election Commission (EC) was wise enough to take precautions to prevent the spread of the disease on the polling day.

Head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who talks sense in a measured tone, has urged the countries battling the pandemic not to make COVID-19 a political football. Unfortunately, in this country, the government and the Opposition are busy doing exactly the opposite of what the WHO advocates; a game of football, as it were, passed for a parliamentary debate on COVID-19, the other day, with the Opposition trying to score political points by faulting the government and the latter ridiculing the former. Nothing worthwhile came of the ‘debate’ and a lot of public funds went down the gurgler.

When the government decided to have a general election in August 2019, cynics said that in New Zealand elections had been postponed in view of a possible second wave of COVID-19, and in Sri Lanka the second wave of COVID-19 had been postponed on account of an election. The government now has a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the 20th Amendment to boot; the people have COVID-19!

The healthcare system is being overwhelmed to all intents and purposes, and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is increasing. What we are witnessing looks like the beginning of the worst-case scenario. The economy is on a ventilator, but we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot do without quarantine curfews, which are bound to make an already bad economic situation worse. Everyone’s life is in danger. The government has had to perform a high-wire act, and, therefore, deserves unstinted public support. The need for a truly national effort to beat the virus, and keep the Grim Reaper at bay cannot be overemphasised.