{"id":102143,"date":"2020-05-10T15:39:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-10T22:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102143"},"modified":"2020-05-10T15:39:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T22:39:02","slug":"controlling-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-gradual-restoration-of-normal-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/10\/controlling-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-gradual-restoration-of-normal-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Controlling the Coronavirus pandemic and gradual restoration of normal life"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Covid-19 came to the attention of the\nworld as a new disease around the beginning of this year. From the very outset,\nthe World Health Organisation (WHO) stated very candidly that this was a\ncompletely new disease and that they too were still in the process of learning\nmore about it. Even as late as 29 February 2020,\nthe WHO was advising against the imposition of \ninternational travel bans. It was only on 6 April that the WHO\nrecommended the use of face masks if it was not possible to maintain social\ndistancing. Every country in the world had to learn more about this disease\nthrough experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka began preparations for this\npandemic quite early. The President set up a task force to combat the\nCronavirus as early as 26 January 2020. Even though there were no Coronavirus\npatients in Sri Lanka at that time, the first quarantine center was declared in\nHendala on 4 March. The first Coronavirus patient was discovered on the night\nof 10 March. From 11 March all passengers coming into Sri Lanka from Coronavirus\naffected countries, were sent for\nquarantine. As the armed forces and police carried out an effective contact\ntracing programme to identify those who had come into contact with patients,\nthis disease has now been brought under control to a satisfactory degree.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this moment, Sri Lanka is well ahead of most\ncountries in the world in terms of controlling the spread of Coronavirus. Our\ndoctors, nurses and other medical personnel, our intelligence services who\nmaintained a very effective contact tracing operation, our armed forces,\npolice, public health inspectors and others who played a frontline role in\nworking directly with the public, should be proud of what they have achieved.\nIt\u2019s noteworthy that while 25 Sri Lankans resident in Britain have died of the\nCoronavirus, only nine Sri Lankans resident in Sri Lanka have died of this\ndisease so far. It must also be stated that had Gotabhaya Rajapaksa not been\nelected President on 16 November last year, none of these achievements would\nhave been possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Coronavirus outbreak now under control to a\ncertain degree, the government has\ngradually begun relaxing the curfew. Even though steps were taken to impose\ncurfew and to shut down the country, in reality, no country can be shut down\ncompletely. While the majority of the people were confined to their homes,\nmillions of others continued to work throughout the country. The health\nservices, armed forces, police, paddy farmers, vegetable farmers, fishermen,\ndistributors of food, medicine and other essentials, and even some factories\ncontinued to function. What is meant by restoring normalcy to the country, is\nthe process of  extending this state of\naffairs in a controlled way, to the section of the population that had been\nconfined to their homes during the shut down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the outset, government and private sector\ninstitutions will begin functioning with a\nlimited number of employees. The number of passengers on trains and buses will\nbe limited. Schools and tuition classes will remain closed. Social distancing\nrules are to be maintained when commencing work in this phased manner. At the\nearly stages, when curfew was relaxed in certain\ndistricts, people did not observe social distancing norms. However after a\nwhile, people became more mindful of the need for social distancing in public\nplaces. The public should continue to be mindful of the need for social\ndistancing even after the curfew is relaxed. We\nshould all be aware that even though the spread of Coronavirus has been brought\nunder control, it has not been eradicated completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Random sample testing among members of the\npublic will continue to be carried out. The quarantine centres will be kept\nopen. Even after the restoration of normalcy has begun, it may be necessary to\nisolate and lock down certain areas and even to impose police curfews.\nCoronavirus patients may continue to be\nfound, but I believe our health authorities have by now mastered the manner in\nwhich such situations should be handled. We will have to maintain a balance\nbetween steps taken to prevent the spread of the disease on the one hand and\nthe restoration of normalcy on the other. \nEven countries like Italy, Britain, France and the USA which experienced\ntens of thousands of Coronavirus related deaths have now commenced programmes\nfor the gradual restoration of normal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npeople fully cooperated with the efforts made to bring the spread of\nCroronavirus under control. We request the people to extend their fullest\ncooperation once again to the armed forces and police for the phased\nrestoration of normal life in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister Covid-19 came to the attention of the world as a new disease around the beginning of this year. From the very outset, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated very candidly that this was a completely new disease and that they too were still in the process of learning more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}