Four men from Sri Lanka, who had allegedly attended the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin last month, tested positive for Covid-19, in the Nuh district on Sunday, said officials. Eight people have been confirmed to have Covid-19 from Nuh and seven of them had visited the congregation in Nizamuddin, held mid-March.
Virender Yadav, chief medical officer (CMO), Nuh, said: Two of the patients were found near the Palwal border on March 31while entering Nuh and the other two were traced to Umra village. They were quarantined and their samples were collected which have come positive,” he said.
Police said all those who had attended the event and those who had come in close contact with them have been identified in Nuh. All samples will be collected by Sunday night, they added.
There were 270 people who had attended the Jamaat in March, who then went to Palwal. They had started moving to Nuh after the lockdown was announced and were identified within a week,” said Yadav.
Meanwhile, the 600-bed Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Government Medical College at Nalhar in Mewat district has been declared an exclusive hospital for Sars-Cov-2 cases and more than 300 people have been admitted there in isolation and quarantine wards.
On Friday, three people from Kerala, who had allegedly attended the event last month, had tested positive in Nuh, said officials.
The superintendent of police of Nuh, Narender Bijarniya, on Sunday, said the four men from Sri Lanka were in touch with people from Palla and Rehna village in Nuh. We have identified all the people and most of the samples have been collected. Our priority is to choose the highest risk persons. The teams start collecting samples by 8am and the process goes on until 11.30pm. All officials, including medical teams, are working round the clock,” he said.
Nuh had received test reports of 41 cases until Sunday, out of which eight have tested positive for coronavirus, including a truck driver who had visited Gujarat last month.
Most of the villages have been sanitised and the survey was completed by Sunday afternoon, said officials.
One of the medical officers, who is part of the sample collection team, said the villagers are not cooperating and that they find it difficult to get the tests done. They have reported the matter to the police regarding a few incidents where a police team accompanied them, said an officer on condition of anonymity.
The seven people who have tested positive for coronavirus had attended the event and stayed in Palwal for nearly 10 days before starting for Nuh, said the police.
Bijrania said the situation in Nuh is under control and all suspected people are quarantined and under surveillance. Police teams are keeping a close watch on the people hospitalised and their family members to ensure that the infected persons do not come in close contact with anyone else.
By Dr Lal Jayasinghe Consultant in Communicable Disease Control UK (retired) (member Public Health Writers Collective) Courtesy The Island
Phwriters2020@gmail.com
So far, we have done very well. Let us not forget this. We were very fortunate that the govt. listened to the right people and took their advice on how to control this epidemic namely the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Department. We are also fortunate in other ways as well. We are an island which means the virus can enter Sri Lanka (legally) only via airports. We are also fortunate in having a good public health network. We are also a small country. Small is certainly beautiful when it comes to controlling an epidemic. So, let us use these advantages to the maximum, which we have done so far.
What we have to do in the situation of an epidemic is well understood by practitioners of that discipline in medicine specially trained for the purpose i.e epidemiologists. As I stated above, the govt. listened to them. In simple terms what needs to be done is to keep patients apart from healthy people. This is nothing new and has been understood for centuries. In order to do so we need to identify the patients. As we knew that apart from the Chinese lady who became ill with Covid-19, there was no Covid-19 in Sri Lanka. Basically, there was not a single corona virus in Sri Lanka. So, it had to come via the airport. Therefore, we decided to quarantine people coming into the country and successfully identified patients who we could then keep apart from others. With hindsight the mistake we made was initially to limit returnees from China, South Korea and Iran only for quarantine. We are paying heavily for that initial mistake because cases started appearing in returnees from other countries as well such as India and Pakistan etc.
In situations where we identified patients who have potentially infected others by the time we found them, we quarantined the contacts. Once again, very wisely we did not put all our eggs in one basket by only trying to catch imported cases as our one and only strategy. By declaring a curfew, closing schools etc., we made sure that if cases started to appear in the community due to leaks, there will not be uncontrolled spread.
All these strategies worked very well until we find people who came into the country from abroad and didn’t tell the authorities and therefore escaped quarantine and became ill and infected others. We will continue to keep discovering such patients and contacts. However, we haven’t panicked. And now is not the time to do so. Some people keep telling us that there are hundreds of cases out there in the community. However, this is either speculation or based on modeling. If there are such numbers, they must be asymptomatic because they don’t seem to seek treatment. In that case they are much less infectious. After all Corona is also a virus and not an alien such as you find in Hollywood films. Viruses and diseases caused by them behave in a predictable manner, even if some viruses are more infectious than others. The spread of the disease is easier from a more severe case. Also, the more severe the disease the more likely the patient will have symptoms. What this means is that if there are cases out there who are ill with Covid-19 but going about because they are not ill enough to seek treatment, then they are less likely to spread the disease. Therefore, if at this time we concentrate on identifying Covid-19 patients who seek treatment because they are ill, we will catch the more important cases.
Another feature of spread of a disease caused by viruses, especially respiratory viruses is that the closer the contact with a patient, the more likely we are to catch it. Clearly, this is common sense and not rocket science. Therefore, having made sure that we quarantine arrivals from abroad, if we test patients who show symptoms of Covid-19 in the rest of the community, we will catch most if not all Covid-19 patients in the community. As far as I am aware, there has not been any cases discovered so far, who have neither come from outside Sri Lanka, associated with a person who has come from outside or is a contact of a known patient.
The authorities have also taken measures to limit the contact of the general population with any unknown patients by closing schools Universities etc. and declaring a curfew. So, let us hold our nerve and have confidence in the measures taken by the govt.
Now I come to a possible source of danger. It is observed that the media, as it is their right, keep reporting, not false information, but different opinions on how to control the epidemic. One opinion is based on modelling. Modelling is good for academics to talk about but very dangerous to be the basis of policy. This was proved to be true in the case of the United Kingdom. At the initial stage of the outbreak in UK, the authorities rather foolishly decided to do nothing or nearly nothing and more or less to let nature take its course and for people to develop immunity or herd immunity and for the disease to peter out by itself. All this was based on modeling. Very soon saner counsel prevailed and now the policy has changed and more traditional measures like shutting down and social distancing are in place.
Mathematical models are based on reported cases from all countries. Countries have different social structures and behaviors. Therefore, it would be foolish to depend on a model to predict how the virus will spread or otherwise in a particular country.
This is what a paper from a leading American University says:
The forecasting models and data strongly suggest that the number of coronavirus cases grows exponentially in countries that do not mandate quarantines, restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and closing of schools, universities, and workplaces (Social Distancing)”
We cannot by any stretch of imagination say that our cases have grown exponentially. This may be because we practice: quarantines, restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and closing of schools, universities, and workplaces (Social Distancing)”
While most countries were suddenly hit by an “epidemic” Sri Lanka was hit by a “cluster” of cases. They were not a cluster in the usual (geographical) sense, but all cases were in a particular group of people with a common feature, namely foreigners or people with foreign associations. Because of this most of our cases were in some respects “expected”. Therefore, we are not surprised at the numbers. So, let us not panic.
A more recent argument is that we should increase testing. This advice too should be nipped in the bud. At present the only reliable test is PCR. This test is expensive and uses reagents and equipment in short supply. It is not a sort of yes or no” test in lay terms and we are told that three experts in the field check the results before declaring the results and is, I understand, carried out only in designated labs. Very wisely, private hospitals are permitted to carry out the test under very strict conditions.
For the uninitiated, lay or medical, it might seem a good idea to test as many people as possible in order to identify new patients and keep them safe. But it is not as simple as that. ALL tests have what is called false positive and false negative results. That is one of the reasons that three experts no less, have to decide whether a result is a true positive or a true negative depending on other factors as well such as the history of exposure, symptoms, other tests etc. What are the implications of false positive and false negative results? Without going into detail, a false positive will create unnecessary panic and wasted resources (not to mention the possibility of being cared among truly positive patients and therefore actually catching the disease!) while a false negative will give rise to a much more dangerous situation. A false negative result will declare that an infected person is negative and safe to mix with other people without restrictions leading to a disaster by infecting a large number of people. At the present time, a PCR is the most reliable test available. In other words, the false positive and false negative percentages are small if carried out by qualified and experienced personnel The PCR test is very expensive with the equipment and reagents in short supply. So, very prudently the authorities are using the test only on patients who are suspected to be corona positive on other grounds. And this policy in my opinion should continue at this stage of the campaign.
I have heard people speak of new tests for corona infection that are supposed be 30% successful. Perhaps they mean antibody tests to decide whether a person has had the disease or not in the past. This test is now being introduced in UK tin order to identify health workers who can “safely” go to work with Covid 19 cases because they are unlikely to catch the disease a second time. In any case what do we in Sri Lanka hope to achieve by widespread testing? If we find someone is negative, that person can acquire the disease in the very next moment after the test. Also, if positive what do we do then? Do we quarantine them? Do we quarantine the contacts? Those who are positive, although in theory they can give the disease to others they are less likely to do so if they are not showing symptoms. What this means is that it is much more efficient if, at present, with our limited resources, we confine our testing to symptomatic patients. In other countries like UK there is another reason for testing. People who have respiratory symptoms or family members with respiratory symptoms have self quarantined themselves. This has created a shortage of workers specially health workers. If more tests are performed it will be possible to release those proving negative to go back to work.
There is one other aspect that needs setting right in my opinion. At the moment, a variety of people speak on the television on the current situation. This can lead to confusion. Without a single source of official and correct information people tend to think that facts are being hidden and tend to believe in conspiracy theories which are plenty. My suggestion is that there should be an official announcement from one and the same official, either once or twice daily at a particular time. If a need arises for some reason to make a special announcement that too can be done as breaking news but from the same source or individual as the routine announcement. If this one official spokesperson is a medical person, he/she can enlighten the public about the government policy and strategy that is being currently followed and give reasons for not accepting various suggestions by numerous people, mostly doctors and politicians as for example not practicing widespread testing.
It would be churlish on my part if I didn’t mention the invaluable role that the armed forces and police play in keeping the country safe from Corona. In the usual situation of an outbreak of infectious disease or an epidemic, the job of tracing contacts is left to the Public Health Inspector. Without downplaying the key roles they play in such normal situations or the important part they play now with the present epidemic, the PHIs couldn’t have traced the large numbers of contacts now traced by the “buddhiya ansaya”. The PHIs neither have the personnel, training or authority that the forces have.
NEW DELHI, April 5: In a major breakthrough, Indian scientists have successfully developed a low-cost, paper-strip test which can detect the new coronavirus within an hour, and costs just INR 500, or LKR 1,250 (US$6.5). This will address India’s urgent need for rapid-testing.
The test uses the cutting-edge gene-editing tool- Crispr-Cas9 to target and identify the genomic sequences of the novel coronavirus in the samples of suspected individuals.
We have been working on this tool for around two years. But, in late January, when the outbreak hit its peak in China, we began testing it to see if it can work for Covid-19. It took us around two months to come up with these results,” said Dr Debjyoti Chakraborty, from the Institute of Genomic and Integrative Biology (IGIB), the premier laboratory of the government-owned Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi.
The kit is similar to a portable paper-strip test used to confirm pregnancy, does not require any different specialized skill to perform, and is relatively less-sophisticated.
Unlike most rapid tests that require dedicated machinery, this can be performed using standard equipment available in every pathological laboratory, or even Mohalla Clinics in Delhi. This is important, because if the number of infections shoot up drastically, we would need tests which can be done in local facilities. We will have to bring the tests closer to the patients to reduce transmission and this is what it does,” said Dr Anurag Aggarwal, Director, CSIR-IGIB.
The team led by Dr Souvik Maiti and Dr Debjyoti Chakraborty is currently testing the kit in a patient cohort for its accuracy and sensitivity, and hopes to seek validation from a regulatory body of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) within a week.
Unlike the real time PCR test currently being used for diagnosis of Covid-19 in India, costing about ₹4500 or LKR 11,250 ($59), the paper-strip test costs less than ₹500. It also does not depend on expensive real-time PCR machines for RNA isolation, DNA conversion and amplification, which are already in limited supply.
While scientists in other countries, including Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), have been testing this approach, it is the first such indigenous testing kit based on CRISPR technology to be developed in India.
As India heads for the exponential rise in the number of coronavirus infections, rapid-testing will be the key strategy to ensure timely isolation of the positive cases to contain the virus from spreading fast. As on Friday, the total number of positive cases has crossed 2,547 across the country with 478 new cases detected in the past 24 hours. The total death toll stood at 62.
The Chairman of Elections Commission Mahinda Deshapriya has urged action to prevent candidates from using relief activity for publicity campaign in the run-up to the election.
He mentioned this in a letter directed to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Deshapriya noted that a special programme is essential for the implementation of relief measures to the people.
He also urged the Premier to coordinate relief measures solely through governors, ministerial secretaries, chief secretaries, district secretaries, divisional secretaries, local government commissioners and field officers with the assistance of security forces.
Persons who have completed the quarantine process are requested to undergo another 14 days of self-isolation, stated the Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva.
The directive is issued for individuals who had undergone the quarantine process at the quarantine centers or at homes.
It was reported today (05) that a person from Matara who had already completed the quarantine process have contracted the COVID-19 virus.
The patient is a father of 3 from Kohugoda-Akuressa, Matara had returned from South Korea to undergo the 14-day quarantine at the Kandakadu facility. Following the quarantine, he had been allowed to return home on the 24th of March.
However, as a person who had been at the quarantine center with him had tested positive with the coronavirus, he too had been tested for the virus. Accordingly, it has been confirmed that he too has contracted COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the residents in the area told Ada Derana that the relevant person had roamed around in the area instead of undergoing the requested 14-day self-isolation period at home.
Each disaster that had hit us made us believe that we had hit rock bottom and nothing worse can happen again. Wasn’t a 33-year-old war which began with the Vadukoddai Resolution passed on May 14th 1976 and ended on May 19th 2009 enough to end all disasters? But new disasters came rolling out of nowhere to shatter the smug complacency. And then we start all over again with another peace-shattering disaster. For instance, whoever thought that millionaire Muslim terrorists, riding in Pajeros, would blast the serene joy of a Sunday morning within a decade of ending the Vadukoddai War? Whoever thought that a movement of the earth somewhere near-distant Indonesia would come sweeping across the Indian Ocean and hit our coastal belt with massive destruction, even halting Prabhakaran’s preparations for his final assault? Whoever thought that an invisible, inscrutable (like the Chinese), and irreverent microbe that escaped from its birth-place in Wuhan can dislocate the best-laid plans of presidents, prime ministers, princes and other powerful panjandrums?
Doesn’t this latest pandemic confirm the fragility and the vulnerability of our existence on this lonely blue planet? What are all our theories and punditry worth when pitted against this virus? Donald Trump has the mightiest arsenal in the world but he can’t keep this micro-bug out of his streets. New York City looks a scene from Sci-Fi film after it has been invaded by aliens. It has humbled man and made him kneel before a force mightier than all enemies since World War II. If it takes off and gallops away man will have to rewrite history questioning all the man-made values on which we have sailed so far. Does this forecast that we will end not with an Einsteinian nuclear bang but an Eliotesque whimper?
But then history records that we have come
through similar death-dealing waves before. The Black Death (1347 – 1350) is
estimated to have decimated half the population of Europe. Bocaccio (Decameron)
records that in Florence over 100,000 died between March and July of 1348.
Partifying was quite common even then among corpses piling up in the medieval
streets. People abandoned cities and withdrew into the villages. Social
distancing came automatically with parents abandoning children and vice versa,
neighbours abandoning neighbours without any government enforcing it.
All is not bleak though. Hope that springs eternal in the human heart say that this is not the end of the world. To use another cliché, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Take the case of Sri Lanka. There is a positive side to the curfew at least. House-bound husbands are seeing their wives stepping gingerly into the kitchen for the first time in their married life. High society ladies who had never seen the inside of a kitchen before, it is reported, have witnessed for the first time the stunning miracles of raw cabbage and a carrot turning into first and second courses at the dinner table. Some have even been amazed by the originality of the kitchen hands who had produced crab curry by using crabs. All these days they thought that only Sangakkara and Mahela could do the trick.
Then take the case of the UNPers. They are most delighted with social distancing. They are thanking President Gotabaya for giving them a legitimate excuse to distance Ranil Wickremesinghe from their lives, hopefully for good. Sajith Premadasa, it is said, believe that the Coronavirus can do what he can’t do. It is said that he is nursing privately the thought of enshrining this provision in the Constitution permanently to keep Ranil out of his hair. Another thought that he is supposed to entertain right now is to drop the telephone as his symbol and go for the image of the Corona microbe. The image is not attractive, true. but it is frightening enough to keep his opponents (found only in Ranil’s camp) at arm’s length.
Then there is every likelihood of the ex-judge C. V. Wigneswaran joining hands with R. Sampanthan and complaining to WHO that the Sinhala government is back to discrimination against the Tamils because the racist state is not distributing the virus equally among the Tamils. Along with the Tamil diaspora, they are ready to complain even to the UNHRC that the Sinhala state has given the bulk of Coronavirus to the Sinhala south without giving an equal share to the Tamils of the North. They argue that their dignity will be restored only if enough of the virus is given to them. They are planning to join hands with the Muslims to legalise this in the next sitting of the Parliament.
Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu and Jehan Perera have jumped in with their both their feet to boost this Tamil claim of discrimination. They have cited statistics to show that it is increasing mainly among the Sinhala-Buddhists and not among the Tamils and Muslims. In their submissions to the UN organisations and their fellow NGO-mafia, they have argued that the Sinhala-Buddhists has consistently taken the lion (no pun intended) share of everything including the Coronavirus and the American Ambassadress must issue unlimited visas to the Tamil to go to New York – the new epicentre of the virus – to remedy the imbalance.
Dayan Jayatilleke too has chipped in saying that it is wrong to blame Gramsci, the outdated Italian theorist, for the spread of the virus among the Sri Lankans in Italy. He theorises that the Italian government should have locked up all the Sri Lankans like the way Mussolini locked up Gramsci and that would have stopped the spread of the virus in Sri Lanka. According to Dayan, Gramsci’s existential experience”—apart from his theories of making a Modern Prince — would have been the ideal global solution to the virus.
Ranil Wickremesinghe has a different approach. He thinks that the Government should bring back Arjuna Mahendran and let him run his Corona-campaign from the auction room of the Central Bank with his trusted in-laws. His solution includes appointing Ravi Karunanayake to head another committee located in a penthouse. Ranil also claims credit for introducing social distancing. He says it has been his only successful life-long policy that has kept people away from the UNP and the polls.
Mangala Samaraweera has come out recommending that the best cure to the virus is to swing a kurunudu polla” – cinnamon stick with which he beat the hell out of the anti-Ranil protesters marching from Matara to Colombo. His biggest regret is that he can’t take the Coronavirus to Geneva and pass a resolution against it, accusing it of war crimes. His alternative is to kiss the cheeks of the visiting American diplomats and hold up the hem of their skirts to prevent the virus from creeping up their legs.
Last but not the least are the Western diplomats. For once their voices are silenced. They cannot recommend cures because they are in the same boat as Sri Lanka. The American Ambassador is paralysed. She cannot impose a visa ban on the Coronavirus because it is thumbing its nose at her from New York. The holier-than-thou Western diplomats are at a loss not knowing how to pose as the superior knowledgeable ones who know how to teach the natives how to conduct their lives.
The hard reality is that we are all drifting hoping that the cure will pop up sooner or later – perhaps more sooner than later. This virus has been a great leveller. We will come out of it, no doubt. But it is the cost that is frightening. Besides, we will never be the same again. It will take time to recover. But when we recover and open our eyes we may not be in the same world that we’ve known in the days gone by.
Muslim bashing is considered politically
correct in Sri Lanka.
Muslims are a minority in
this country. They comprised less than 10% of the population.
Muslims congregate in groups.
They wear garments that are specific to them. They live within closely knitted
communities. They help each other out. They give priority to their religion and
religious customs.
These characteristics have made them the envy of the Sinhalese.
There are many other reasons for enmity.
The rapid rise in the Muslim population has alarmed the Sinhalese. This has caused insecurity within the Sinhalese.
It is the Sinhalese who preached
its people to produce fewer children (‘Punchi Pavula Raththaran’). Sinhalese do
not run commerce as successfully as the Muslims (Muslims run their commerce
exceptionally well). Many Sinhalese like to patronise Muslim shops because they
receive good/friendly treatment.
The crux of the argument is that the Sinhalese have failed to
realise that Muslims have never demanded a separate state in Sri Lanka. During
the war, they provided men to our war efforts. Some of them sacrificed their lives
and limbs for the country. Upon hearing Prabhakaran’s death, Muslim homes
prepared Kiribath. They were overjoyed; sang and danced with the Sinhalese. Muslims
are willing to learn the Sinhalese language and send their children to study in
Sinhala medium schools.
Those who attack Muslims are dumbfounded about the racism
engineered by Tamils against the Sinhalese in the North and the East.
The biggest threat to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial
integrity is Tamil separatism. But, there is no discourse about this in the
country. Sinhalese conveniently ignore the racism they encounter in the hands
of the Tamils in the North and the East. This writer has written about them.
It seems that the Sinhalese have taken Tamil racism for granted. They tolerate the nonsense that the Tamil Separatists practice against them in the North and the East. It seems they have given up interest in the North and the East (1/3 of the country). Very few Sinhalese even travel to these provinces and show the areas to their children.
There is the saying that one cannot smoke out the real enemy until they truly identify them.
Again, the real enemy is the Tamil Separatists who have not given up their claim to carve out a separate nation for themselves in the North and East of Sri Lanka. That is why they constantly ill-treat the Sinhalese who live there (albeit a very few). They stop new Sinhalese from settling in the North and the East.
Since the dawn of this century (21st), periodic conflicts/tension have propped up between the Sinhalese and Muslims. Troubles have arisen due to the alleged Muslim land grabs in the East (eg Muhudu Maha Viharaya, Dheegavapiya, etc) and in Balangoda (Kuragala).
Most of these disputes could have been amicably settled, unfortunately, the recent governments have been slack. Rather than solving the problems (eg nipping them in the bud), the governments have sometimes worked to exacerbate them. The governments mollycoddled certain clergy who had spread nothing else but ethnic disharmony/ethnic hatred.
In the past two decades, the Sinhalese have started to dislike Muslims more and more. Certain Muslim activities have also contributed to this; they themselves have helped in the creation of the bad perception. Some examples include disobeying laws by Muslim youth in the East, wearing of the niqab in public by Muslim women (even after the Easter bombings). There are stories that some Muslims have been arrogant towards the Sinhalese.
In recent riots against the Muslims, their homes and shops were attacked in a systemic way. The attacks in Aluthhgama, Ginthota, Digana, Pujapitiya etc showed well organized/well-coordinated attacks. Several innocent Muslim civilians died in these riots. The tension between the two communities came to the ultimate height when in April last year a group of radical Muslim youth attacked Sri Lankan Christian churches and 5-star hotels. More than 250 innocent lives were lost including foreign tourists.
Now, accusations are being made that Muslims may be deliberately spreading Corona among the country’s masses. This is a stupid and sometimes a hilarious accusation. To spread Corona deliberately, one needs to first infect the virus themselves. Who would do that? Also, how can they only choose the Sinhalese to spread the virus?
There had been false allegations that some Muslim shops were giving Sinhalese women sweet toffees that cause them infertile. Anyone with a science knowledge knows that such methods do not work.
When the Sinhalese break curfew and misbehave, no one talks. A small misdeed by a Muslim is highlighted as a major offense. In Social media, Muslims are constantly depicted in derogatory ways. People use obscene language to attack Muslims.
The writer states that the
Muslim leaders’ demand that Muslims who die from Corona should be allowed to be
buried in accordance with the Muslim religious customs is unfair and
unreasonable. Even in Europe (eg Italy and Spain) Muslims who die from Corona are
subjected to normal cremations.
We Sinhalese have made huge accusations against the Muslims. Some of them seem reasonable. But, we being the majority need to be more sensitive and careful; we must stop continuously pushing them ‘into the corner’. We do not want them to take up arms/forming their own ‘LTTE’. The last thing we want is the Eastern radical Muslims ganging up with N/E Tamil Separatists. But this is a possibility. If that happens, it will be Sri Lanka starting another civil war. We certainly do not want that.
In Islam, a
martyr need not be buried to go to heaven. Muslims who die in the COVID-19
epidemic, for no fault of theirs, must be considered martyrs by the Muslim
community. If terrorists including suicide bombers can be treated as martyrs,
why not innocent Muslims who died from COVID-19? Therefore their dead bodies
need not be buried. Cremation is suitable. This is the only amicable way to
resolve the dispute and Muslims must extend their cooperation.
The cremation or burial debate is a needless one. Local medical professionals know the condition of local affairs and they must make decisions. The decision to allow burial is not in the hands of Amnesty International, Muslim Congress, Ulema Council or even the WHO. Local capabilities and conditions are only known to locals. Without a doubt, cremation must be compulsory for all dead who died from a communicable disease.
However,
cremation must be made compulsory even without and after the coronavirus
pandemic.
Given the extremely high population density of over 320 persons per square kilometer, Sri Lanka is fast running out of safe burial grounds. Existing burial grounds are either too expensive or too costly for the environment. The water table is polluted with burial especially in the Wet Zone and catchment areas.
All Abrahamic religions originated in deserts. Burial was less damaging to their desert environments as there are no water sources it could pollute and the land was aplenty.
This is not the case
beyond deserts. Christians and Jews around the world have wisely moved away from
desert practices into the 21st century but some Muslims
unfortunately still cling on to destructive burial practices that suit deserts.
Cremation is not
without cost. It burns fuel and emits carbon dioxide. However, it is the
cleanest way to dispose of a dead body.
Sri Lanka cannot always bend backward to appease tribal demands. The government must take into account the health, economic, environmental and public concerns of all, not just one community. Cremate all dead in Sri Lanka.
That will
lead to more people opting to donate organs at the end of life as they realize
the absurdity of clinging on to a dead body.
Sri Lankans must not tolerate selfish and outdated desert
practices that put everyone’s health in danger.
According to the Mahavamsa,
Anuradhapura was ruled by a foreign king, Elara in the period immediately before
Dutugemunu. Elara’s
origins are not known.
Dipawamsa said Elara was Uju jatiko’, meaning hailing from the ‘Uju’ tribe or from the land by that name. Mahavamsa said Elara, was a ruler of foreign origin, ‘a prince’ (Khattiyo) a ‘Damilo’ who came from the Cola country. This has been mistakenly interpreted as Chola prince. Elara could not have been a Chola prince, because the Chola dynasty did not exist at the time.
A. Denis N. Fernando, a surveyor by
profession, suggested that Elara was in fact, a Parthian trader. Historian
D.G.B. de Silva considers this quite possible.D.G.B. de Silva
says the time to which
Dutthagamani and Elara belonged [2nd C.B.C.] was contemporaneous with the rule
of mighty Persian emperors of the Parthian dynasty who succeeded to the
fortunes of the Achaemeneid [Hakamanish] emperors.
The Parthians [Aracids] like their predecessors
controlled the inland caravan routes to India and China and had penetrated into
the Indian Ocean trade which went through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
Their vessels were already traversing deep into Eastern lands and their coins
were in circulation in India. One coin of Mitradates Eupator [113-6 B.C.] has
also been discovered in Sri Lanka.
The Tamil Separatist Movement had
drawn attention to the greatness of this ‘Tamil’ king, implying that it was
wrong of Dutugemunu to unseat him. However,
researchers have pointed out that the good deeds attributed to Elara, such as
the story of the Bell of Justice are not unique to Elara. They are standard
stories that appear elsewhere.
They are found in the Persian legend
of the mythical hero Anosharvan. King Kosraw I, traditionally known as Anosharavan, was
king of the Sassanian kingdom (Iran) from 531 to 579 AD. According
to legend, he is said to have had a Bell of Justice …hung to his bed chamber
with a rope attached to it and the end in the street which man, beast or bird
could pull seeking justice”.
Elara
used this Bell of Justice, in a rather unorthodox manner. His son’s chariot had
run over a calf, unintentionally. The mother cow had rung the Bell of Justice.
Elara listened to what the cow had to say and had the prince’s head struck off
by the same chariot wheel. This interpretation of ‘justice’ is questioned even
today.
D.G.B. de Silva saw another connection between the Mahavamsa description and Persian tradition. The funeral rites for Persian monarchs resembled the elaborate account given in Mahavamsa about the funeral rites accorded to King Elara. There were many similarities between the rites performed on Persian royalty and those described for Elara, said de Silva. He also pointed out that the way King Poros was treated after Alexander defeated him in a hard-fought battle was almost exactly how King Dutugemunu treated Elara, after killing him in battle.
The Tamil Separatist Movement keeps reminding us that when Dutugemunu defeated Elara in Anuradhapura, he created a monument to Elara, and ordered the public to honor the tomb when they went past the tomb.
The
Mahavamsa said. “In the city he [Dutugemunu] caused the drums to be
beaten, and when he had summoned the people from a yojana around he celebrated
the funeral rites for king Elara.” The terminology used pujam Elara rajino” means
that King Elara was honored (pujam)] said D.G.B. de Silva.
Mahavamsa said On the spot where his body had fallen he burned it with the catafalque, and there did he build a monument and ordered worship. And even to this day the princes of Lanka, when they draw near to this place, are wont to silence their music because of this worship.” The Mahavamsa tika adds that the king had ordained that princes in the future should honour the edifice by perambulating it and offering flowers and incense.
There is something suspicious about this description since Dutugemunu does not seem to have shown the same respect to his own father and mother. Also, no other king has followed this policy. Mahavamsa is full of dead kings. But there is no mention of any other tomb. Except for this reference to Elara, the chronicles are silent about the way the mortal remains of other rulers were disposed of, said DGB de Silva. This description has probably been taken from some foreign documents and added to the Mahavamsa .
In
addition to Persian influence, there was also Greek influence in the early
historic period of Sri Lanka. Mahavamsa says king Pandukabaya laid out also
four suburbs as well as the Abhaya-tank, the common cemetery, the place of
execution, and the chapel of the queens of the west, the banyan-tree of
Vessayana, and the palmyra-palm of the demon of maladies, the ground set apart for the Yonas and the house of the Great
Sacrifice; all these he laid out near the West gate.” In the original Pali, this ground is called
‘Yona-sabha-guwattu’
Mahavamsa thereafter says that in the time of Dutugemunu, several thousand ‘Yona’ Buddhist bhikkhus from ‘Alasanda’ came for the consecration of the Mahaseya. Mahavamsa mentions the ‘Yona’ five times.
Merlin Pieris, former Professor of Classics in the University of Peradeniya, said that the ‘YONA’ referred to here were the ‘IONIANS’- those from the Ionian Islands. This was the common term used by the Persians to refer to Greeks at the time.
This writer, Kamalika Pieris, found, using desk research, that there were Greek settlements in the Arabian Peninsula, during the Early Historic Period. There was also a much-used sea route from the Arabian Sea to India and Sri Lanka at that time. I think that this is how the Greeks came to Sri Lanka for the Mahathupa consecration. It was easier to come from ‘Arabia’, than from Bactria. All they had to do was to get on a ship.
These Greeks would have brought firsthand knowledge of Greek culture into Sri Lanka. The only trace of this today is in the Greek myths that appear in the Mahavamsa, said Merlin Pieris.
Merlin
Pieris says the Ummadacitta story is from the Greek myth of Danae, daughter of
the king of Argos. The story of Vijaya
is from Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. It also contains Argonautic myths. The Argonauts
were a band of heroes in Greek
mythology.
The Kelanitissa- Viharamaha Devi episode is taken from Danae and from the Andromeda story found in the legend of Perseus. The Mahavamsa account has been taken straight from the Greek one, not from any intermediate source. The flooding of Kelaniya and the marriage of Kelanitissa and Viharamaha Devi, however, are true, said Merlin.
Subha
saha Yasa story is found in Plato’s Republic”
and in the writings of Herodotus.
It is also given in a papyrus dated to 2 AD, found In Egypt, which means
the story may pre-date Herodotus.
Merlin
thinks the Mahavamsa writer may have known of the two Greek epics Odyssey” and
Iliad”. He further observes that the only history the Sinhala historians could
have obtained during this period was that of Herodotus. India had no model
history.
They
also seem to have heard of the Greek historian Xenophon (430 – 354 BC). William Knighton in his History of
Ceylon” (1845) observed that the manner in which king Kavantissa
collected his army closely resembled the account given by Xenophon in hisCyropaedia” of
the manner in which King Cyrus of Persia gathered up his army.
All this does not reduce the value of the Mahavamsa as a research tool for historians. It helps explain certain sections of the work. Mahavamsa, as it stands today, appears to be a collection of texts rather than a single, consecutive piece of writing.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged
the WHO and the UN to act against China’s wet markets. It is suspected that COVID-19 might have originated from a wet market in Wuhan
The Coronavirus and the restrictions
imposed to help manage it are challenging to us all. However, some people in
our community, particularly those at risk due to age, isolation or illness are
finding it particularly difficult to cope.
The JVP UK Committee is offering a
COVID-19 Community Support voluntary service for anyone who needs help with
shopping, accessing healthcare, services or medications.
Some of the services that we offer:
1. If you or your family is in
isolation and have nobody to help you with essential shopping, medication or
any other necessary assistance, our volunteers could help
2. We can put you in touch with the
government and non-government organisations who provide help/services or
contact them on your behalf.
3. Our team of medical professionals
can assist and advise you if you require medical advise and guidance (please be
aware that they may be limited in terms of which service or advise that they
can offer)
4. We understand that these are
stressful times for most people, whether related to finances, health, concerns
about your loved ones or any other concerns that you may have, our team can
listen/advise/extend support assist you in anyway we can.
5. We can also extend this help to
Sri Lanka through JVP RED force team in Sri Lanka so please let us know of any
loved ones or individuals who may require assistance back home.
If you or anyone that you know needs
this type of assistance please do not hesitate to get in touch with us either
via email or call us on one of the numbers below. Please also note that we
extend this gesture to beyond the Sri Lankan community in the UK, to all our
non-Sri Lankan friends and neighbours.
Asanga:Karunadhara07904 091266
Ranjith: Siriwardhana 07984396378
thusara Dasanayake 07903707890
Darshana Hettiarachchi 07898642683
If you would like to volunteer to
join hands with us, please give us a call.
Humans are locked down inside their homes, away from the rat race, deprived of the enjoyment of wealth, position and fame. It is undeniable that COVID-19 does not recognize what is considered important in the material world when it hits the human race wherever they are if exposed. Ironically, this is no contagion for any other beings.
Much has been written on what COVID-19 has shown to the world already. There is however a promising chance to be seized especially by those who for sure, believe their lives are not going to be the same hereafter hence the need to clarify the so-called correlations of what they hitherto learned in schools, colleges, and spiritual ashrams. This is an invitation to a probe at one’s life story from a different perspective at this time of apparent despair.
One
way or another, explicitly or otherwise, everyone including spiritual
seekers, look for something better for ‘
the subtle egoic self, in the next
moment’- both being fallacious and yet the ambitious world would embrace them
regardless of the goal being ‘ ‘whatever
success in the physical world and ‘enlightenment’
in spirituality.
Mankind has gone through these experiences from Spanish Flu to Bird Flu over the last few centuries and yet the true nature of life is overlooked, not only because we are trapped inside the mind made – four-dimensional illusion, but our reluctance to go against the ‘ common wave’ in which the humanity is defined and interpreted in many fields from engineering to business and religion to science.
COVID-19 was hardly expected in this magnitude despite there were some predictions, underpinning the uncertain and changing movement of existence. Except for the humor in social media, there is suffering across the world and yet people do not believe that there was suffering all along, that was termed in modern days as anxiety, stress, worries, depression and earlier days as anger, hatred, grief, misery caused by diseases, hunger, and poverty, etc.
The belief in the ‘free will and choice’ – the biggest delusion in human history which, the COVID -19 is revealing to some extent as an expression of the universe which calls for one response from the humanity, just one – Compassion!
Before we return to where we were prior
to the onset of the pandemic, and some may not get there, grasp the possibility
that the truth may not be what you thought it was. Is there a way out of the
character in the movie, or the dream which is real only when dreaming?
Seeing this could well be the freedom
which can hardly be expressed through the language.
When I read the above news published on a pro-government website I am at a loss to understand who should dictate the terms for the corona prevention program in the country.
Why is the GMOA which did not give a hoot about dying patients when they instigated strikes killing patients is trying to dictate terms to the country.
Anil Jasinghe and Prabha Palihawadana who lead health department should dictate guidelines
I also note the Padeniya and few other cohorts appearing in TV trying to show that they can save the country
Where were they when untimely union actions were instigated for various unrealistic demands like taking over Neville Fernando Hospital?
It is like Thonda’s union trying to run estates and Anthare
trying to run private sector
Dr. Sarath Obeysekera CEO Walkers Colombo Shipyard Colombo Sri Lanka
Curfew will continue in the “high risk” districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam, Jaffna and Kalutara
Colombo, April 4 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan government has said that there is a possibility that the curfew imposed on districts which are not in high risk of being infected by the coronavirus, could be lifted by the end of the Sinhala New Year season.
The Sinhala New Year is celebrated on April 13 and 14 but the celebratory season could extend by a week.
At a high-level meeting presided over by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, here on Saturday, the progress of the COVID-19 prevention program was reviewed and decisions on the steps needed to be taken were made.
It was observed that except for the few districts identified as high risk zones where the most number of COVID-19 patients were found, the spread of the virus at present does not pose a threat to the other districts. Therefore, there is a possibility that the current restrictions imposed on these districts (those not in the high risk category) could be lifted by the end of the Sinhala New Year season.”
The current prevention program will continue as it is until this period. Thereafter, a decision as to the next step to be taken, will be considered after further studying the situation,” the Presidential Media Division said in a statement.
In other words, the curfew in the high risk” districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Puttalam, Kalutara and Jaffna will continue, while in the case of the other districts, which are not high risk” it is likely to be lifted after the Sinhala New Year season.
On the meeting with the President, the press statement further said: The President of Government Medical Officers Association Dr Anuruddha Padeniya analyzed the manner this virus had affected the country geographically and the government’s actions to control the epidemic. It was noted that the government’s timely actions from when this virus first entered the country helped manage to keep the situation under control,” the press release said.
It was also noted at the discussion, that the steps adapted henceforth had helped officials to correctly identify both the infected and those who had been compromised due to associating with the infected. However, it was also perceived that the danger is yet to pass.”
Not only COVID-19 positive patients, but also those suspected to have contracted the virus and those who had been in close association with these two groups will be regularly and repeatedly tested. This is in line with the procedures followed by countries that have successfully brought the spread of this virus under control.”
Rumours of Total Lockdown Denied
Meanwhile, the Lankan police spokesman, Ajith Rohana, said that rumoors spread about a compete lockdown in the country are baseless. These rumours are being investigated by the Crime Investigation Department.”
Defense Secretary Maj.Gen (rtd). Kamal Gunaratne said in a statement in the website www.defence.lk that those who are spreading the rumour that there would be a five-day total local lockdown are doing so to create a fear psychosis among the public” and added that no such decision has been taken by the government so far.”
The General asked people not to be misled by these rumours and that police will deal with these rumourmongers.
Hotlines have been set up by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka
Colombo, April 4 (newsin.asia): The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) together with Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Lanka Electricity Company Private Limited (LECO) and National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB) to implement a special service to provide immediate solutions to the issues of electrical systems and plumbing of the households of electricity and water consumers, during the curfew period with effect from today.
Facilities have been provided to rectify the problems of electrical systems and plumbing issues in the premises of the customers through a hotline service which has already been implemented. With the new service, the consumer can seek the assistance of an electrician or a plumber near to consumers’ residential area to sort the issue.
The database has already been established containing the information of electricians and plumbers residing in every district of Sri Lanka and the PUCSL has already taken measures to provide the same information to respective Police Stations and Divisional Secretariats to maximize the service provided. This service is provided by registered electricians and plumbers in accordance with approved safety practices and guidelines required during the curfew hours.
This special service will be implemented in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara Districts where the curfew is in force, as the first phase. It is expected to extend this special technical support service to other districts according to the demands of the consumers. The relevant electricians and plumbers are advised to charge a reasonable fee and issue an acceptable receipt for the service they provide.
Therefore, in case of a problem of plumbing system at your home, you can dial 1939 to obtain the services of a plumber. If you are a consumer of CEB and in a case of a problem in your electrical system at home, you can now dial 1987 to obtain the services of an electrician and if you are a consumer of LECO, you can get the same service through 1910.
Also, if you need further information regarding this service, you can connect with PUCSL via 0764271030. Once the service of an electrician or plumber is obtained, the customer’s response to the service can be communicated to the same numbers.
For more information: –
Vijitha Herath, Chairman of Ceylon Electricity Board – 071998404
Athula De Silva , Attorney-at-Law & the Chairman of Lanka Electricity Company Private Limited -0777769787
Wasantha Ilangasinghe, Additional General Manager, National Water Supply and Drainage Board -0773404140
Jayanat Herat, Director of Corporate Communication, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka- 0772949193
The danger posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka is yet to pass but the restrictions imposed on the ‘low risk’ districts could be lifted by the end of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year Season, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said today.
This has been observed at a meeting Presided by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and took place at the Presidential Secretariat to review the progress of the COVID-19 prevention program and to decide on the steps needed to take this program forward.
The PMD said President of Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya has analyzed the manner the virus had affected the country geographically and the Government’s actions to control the spread. “It was noted that the Government’s timely actions from when this virus first entered the country helped manage to keep the situation under control.
It was also noted at the discussion that the steps adopted henceforth had helped officials to correctly identify both the infected and those who had been compromised due to associating the infected. However, it was also perceived that the danger is yet to pass.
At the same time, it was observed that except for the few districts identified as high risk zones where the most number of COVID-19 patients were found, the spread of the virus at present does not pose a threat to other districts.
Therefore, there is a possibility that the current restrictions imposed on these districts could be lifted by the end of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season.
The current prevention programmme will thus continue as it is until this period. Thereafter, a decision as to the next step to be taken will be considered after further studying the situation.
Headed by President Rajapaksa, this COVID-19 prevention programmme so far had been based on the professional advice from the health, medical, security and legal expertise.
The programme will continue to rely on these expertise until the crisis is brought under control. The on-going processes will continue to monitor the pandemic from a global context whilst studying the guidelines issued periodically by the World Health Organization. Comparing these results and recommendations with the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the programme will be updated as suitable and needed.
Not only COVID-19 positive patients, but also those suspected to have contracted the virus and those who had been in close association with these two groups will be regularly and repeatedly tested.
This is in line with the procedures followed by countries that have successfully brought the spread of this virus under control,” the PMD said. Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Former Western Province Governor Dr. Seetha Arambepola Secretary Defence (Rtd) Major General Kamal Gunaratna, Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Acting IGP C.D. Wickramarathna, GMOA officers and the Chairman of Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka Jayantha de Silva joined the discussion.
Reports circulating on social media of a complete lockdown enforced from April 10 to 15 where food supply and delivery would be suspended are completely false, Police spokesman SP Jaliya Senaratne said.
Issuing a statement SP Senaratne said the false reports indicated that during the supposed lockdown, the law will strictly be enforced, where vehicles vending products such as bakery items will not be permitted to operate while no retail operations will be allowed to be carried out.
The police spokesman denied such reports stating that the government has made no such decision thus far. The police warned against those who circulate such false reports on social media, adding that the Criminal Investigations Department has launched a probe to identify and take legal action against those who create and circulate such misleading posts.(Kalani Kumarasinghe)
Headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a discussion took place today (04) at the Presidential Secretariat to review the progress of the COVID-19 prevention program and decide on the steps needed to take the program forward.
At the meeting, President of Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya analyzed the manner this virus had affected the country geographically and the Government’s actions to control the spread.
It was noted that the Government’s timely actions from when this virus first entered the country helped manage to keep the situation under control. It was also noted at the discussion that the steps adopted henceforth had helped officials to correctly identify both the infected and those who had been compromised due to associating the infected. However, it was also perceived that the danger is yet to pass.
At the same time, it was observed that except for the few districts identified as high-risk zones where the most number of COVID-19 patients were found, the spread of the virus at present does not pose a threat to other districts.
Therefore, there is a possibility that the current restrictions imposed on these districts could be lifted by the end of the Sinhala New Year season, stated President’s Media Division.
Thus the current prevention program will thus continue as it is until this period. Thereafter, a decision as to the next step to be taken will be considered after further studying the situation.
Headed by President Rajapaksa this COVID-19 prevention program thus far had been based on professional advice from health, medical, security, and legal expertise. The program will continue to rely on these experts until the crisis is brought under control.
The on-going processes will continue to monitor the pandemic from a global context whilst studying the guidelines issued periodically by the World Health Organization. Comparing these results and recommendations with the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the program will be updated as suitable and needed.
Not only COVID-19 positive patients but also those suspected to have contracted the virus and those who had been in close association with these two groups will be regularly and repeatedly tested. This is in line with the procedures followed by countries that have successfully brought the spread of this virus under control.
Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Former Western Province Governor Dr. Seetha Arambepola Secretary Defence (Rtd) Major General Kamal Gunaratna, Commander of Sri Lanka Army Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, Acting IGP C.D. Wickramarathna, officers from the Government Medical Officers Association the Chairman of Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka Jayantha de Silva joined the discussion.
Under the recommendations of the special committee appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 2,961 prison inmates have been released on bail since March 17.
President Rajapaksa appointed the committee to make recommendations on the possibility of providing legal redress for the prisoners following a request made by the inmates during an inspection tour of the Prison premises, President’s Media Division.
The Committee comprising officials of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Prisons made their recommendations to the Secretary to the President on the reliefs to be granted to the prison inmates.
Inmates who are unable to pay fines or pay for bail money or to produce personal bail, imprisoned for minor offenses and those who had completed the better part of their prison term or inmates suffering from illnesses and those who have not been granted bail have been considered under this relief scheme, Director General, Legal Affairs of the Presidential Secretariat Attorney –at – Law Harigupta Rohanadheera said.
Currently, prisons in Sri Lanka accommodate over 26,000 inmates while the total capacity does not exceed 10,000 persons. The health situation in the country had also been taken into consideration. Those who had been released are expected not to violate the terms of relief granted by the Courts.
Increasing numbers of younger people are falling seriously ill or dying with coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Officials said they were trying to better understand” why apparently healthy patients aged under 60 ended up in intensive care units (ICU) with the disease.
There are still many unknowns at this present time,” said WHO expert, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, at a press conference in Geneva.
Overall, most of the people who are experiencing severe disease and ending up in ICU are people of older age and are people who have underlying conditions.
But what we are seeing in some countries, individuals who are in their thirties, forties and fifties who are in ICUs and have died.
We are seeing more and more younger individuals who are experiencing severe disease.”
It comes after a 13-year-old boy with no apparent health problems died in a London hospital on Monday. His immediate family were unable to attend the funeral because they were in self-isolation.
In Korea, one in six COVID-19 deaths are among people under the age of 60, the WHO said.
And in Italy, around 10 to 15 per cent of people who ended up in intensive care units (ICU) with the virus were aged under 50.
However, Dr Van Kerkhove also urged caution in comparing death rates around the world, saying that we have some time to go before we can really understand what mortality looks like across different countries”.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies programme, also stressed that the majority of people who experience severe illness tend to be older and with pre-existing health problems.
It’s not that anything has changed,” he added. It’s that we collectively have been living in a world where we have tried to convince ourselves that this disease is mild and more severe in older people.
But I think the evidence has been there all along. There is a spectrum of severity.”
Last week the mother of 21-year-old Chloe Middleton, who died of coronavirus despite having no underlying health issues, urged the public to take government advice seriously. To all the people out there that think it’s just a virus, please think again,” she said.
The US on Friday set a new record for the number of COVID-19 deaths in one day with 1,480 dead, the most of any country since the pandemic began. That topped the record set by the US the previous day with 1,169 deaths.
More than 59,000 people have died from COVID-19, and over one million infected, since it was first detected late last year.
Worse may be coming as a quarter of global infections are in the United States, where US President Donald Trump has warned of a very, very painful” first two weeks of April. The US has over 277,000 confirmed case, more than any country.
Confirmed Cases and Deaths as of 23.00GMT
Europe reached the dark milestone of 40,000 dead, with Spain on Friday reporting more than 900 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Spaniard Javier Lara survived after being put on oxygen in an overcrowded intensive care unit — a shock to a 29-year-old who was athletic and doesn’t smoke.
I was panicking that my daughter would get infected,” he said, describing facing death with an eight-week-old as the worst moment” in his life.
But there were also signs the peak may be passing in Europe.
Hardest-hit Italy recorded 766 new deaths but its infections rose by just four percent, the lowest increase yet, according to the civil protection service.
It’s true that the latest figures, as high as they are, give us a little bit of hope,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.
But it is definitely much too early to see a clear trend in that, and it is certainly too early to think in any way about relaxing the strict rules we have given ourselves,” she added.
Prosperous countries have borne the brunt of the disease, but there are fears of an explosion among the world’s most vulnerable living in conflict zones or refugee camps.
The worst is yet to come,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referring to countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen. The COVID-19 storm is now coming to all these theaters of conflict.”
The world economy has been pummeled by the virus and associated lockdowns, with the US economy shedding 701,000 jobs in March — its worst showing since March 2009 in the wake of the subprime banking crisis. Even more dire figures are expected for April.
Financial ratings agency Fitch predicted the US and eurozone economies would shrink this quarter by up to 30 percent and the Asian Development Bank warned the global economy could take a $4.1 trillion hit — equivalent to five percent of worldwide output.
Latin America is heading into a deep recession” with an expected drop of 1.8 to 4% in GDP, according to the UN economic commission for the region.
In signs that the world wants to avoid a repeat of the crisis, the African country of Gabon said it was banning the sale and consumption of bats and pangolins, the critically endangered, scaly mammals.
The novel coronavirus is believed to have come from bats, but researchers think it might have spread to humans via another mammal such as pangolins through an unsanitary meat market in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus first emerged.
The virus has chiefly killed the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions, but recent deaths among teenagers and babies have highlighted the dangers for people of all ages.
In Spain, 34-year-old Vanesa Muro gave birth with COVID-19 and has been warned not to touch her newborn without wearing gloves and masks.
It’s hard,” she told AFP. He grabs your finger, the poor little thing, and holds onto the plastic, not on to you.”
As the death toll mounted, US authorities advised all Americans on Friday to wear masks in public to protect against the virus, fearing the illness that has infected more than one million people worldwide may be spreading by normal breathing.
Trump said the government recommendation for all 330 million Americans to wear non-medical masks in places such as grocery stores would last for a period of time.”
It’s going to be really a voluntary thing,” Trump told reporters. You don’t have to do it and I’m choosing not to do it, but some people may want to do it and that’s okay.”
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the decision came because many people with the virus were showing no symptoms, but warned it was still vital to practice social distancing” by maintaining space between people.
The announcement came after Anthony Fauci, who is leading the government’s scientific response, backed recent scholarship that found the virus SARS-CoV-2 can be suspended in the ultra-fine mist formed when people exhale.
Research indicates the virus can actually be spread even when people just speak as opposed to coughing and sneezing,” Fauci said on Fox News.
The National Academy of Sciences sent a letter to the White House on April 1 summarizing recent research on the subject, saying it’s not yet conclusive but the results… are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing.”
Since the virus was first identified in China in late December last year, health experts have said it is primarily spread through coughing and sneezing.
The US recommendation will likely worsen an already severe shortage of masks in the United States and Europe, which both rely heavily on imports from China.
Trump urged Americans to just make something” or use scarves, saving clinical masks for health professionals and patients.
A special search operation has been kicked off to apprehend those who gather in groups at apartment complexes and other such places in Colombo and suburbs, says DIG Ajith Rohana.
He added that the police have already received information on such persons.
Taking into account the request made by farmers, curfew has been relaxed for machinery repair shops, DIG Rohana said further.
In the meantime, a total of 12,223 have been arrested island-wide for violating curfew orders, the Police Media said.
The police have arrested 1,493 persons for violating curfew orders during the 24-hour period from 6.00 am yesterday (03) until 6.00 am this morning (04).
Accordingly, the total number of curfew violators, who were placed under arrest since March 20, now stands at 12,223.
