{"id":103598,"date":"2020-06-16T16:41:03","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103598"},"modified":"2020-06-16T16:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:41:03","slug":"how-countries-are-faring-so-far-during-the-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/16\/how-countries-are-faring-so-far-during-the-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"How countries are faring so far during the Covid-19 Pandemic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarath Bulathsinghala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is not easy to compare the response of different\ncountries with one yardstick. It is also not quite correct to say that the New\nZealand Covid-19 Free Declaration is a camouflage. I should say that New\nZealand handled the situation in a fair and humanitarian way and with a firm\nhand at the helm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Zealand housed and monitored 7755 people in hotel rooms\nfrom 10 April to 19 May. 12 of them were tested positive during this period.\nThe total number of confirmed and probable cases were 1504. New Zealand is now\ndeclared Corvid-19 free and no more \u2018social distancing\u2019! The borders remain\nclose for the time being as Corvid-19 still continue to play havoc around the\nworld. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The effort in New Zealand was to be Corvid-19 free at the\nearliest possible day and hit the road running to get the economy moving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sri Lanka, it was largely a humanitarian exercise. The\neconomy already at the rock bottom thanks to near five years of disastrous\nJadapalanaya there was not much of an economy to rescue. What they had to do to\ndate has been in spite of a belligerent political opposition who were opposed\nto anything and everything that the Government could do with an ever-watchful\neye to discredit the administration. The former Leader of the Opposition who\noffered to give free sanitary pads to women as an election promise at the last\nPresidential Election, even went on to the extent of prescribing medications \u2013\nChloroquine now universally accepted as injurious to those with Covid-19\ninfections! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Gotabhaya did an excellent job of giving unwavering\nleadership as well as coordinating all the activities of the relevant organisations\nto combat the pandemic effectively. All actions were taken in consultation with\nthe health authorities, the Armed Services and the security and intelligence\nservices in tow. In fact, the top authority was the Director General of Health\nServices and the buck stopped with him literally. The only trump card Sri Lanka\nhad and has is the Free Healthcare System \u2013 curative and preventative network that\nextend to every nook and corner of the Island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of \u2018chase and apprehend\u2019 policy was employed\nusing the State Intelligence Services who helped identify and quarantine or\nhospitalize where necessary the infected, the close family and those that came\ninto close contact with lightning speed. The Armed Services were used to\nestablish and maintain professionally close to 50 well-disciplined Quarantine\nfacilities, according to health services guidelines. The praises of those\nleaving these quarantine facilities after completing the requisite quarantine\nperiod speak for themselves of the quality of love, care and service they\nreceived at their hands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka continued to bring back her citizens from around\nthe world beginning with students from the Hubei Province at the height of the\npandemic in China, then students stranded all over the world, pilgrims and\nothers soon as air travel was possible to those distant destinations. At home\nstranded tourists were well looked after by a generous population as well as\nbusiness leaders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rumour mongering machines of the political opposition\nare busy saying that the government is not divulging the actual number of the\ninfected. This is somewhat foolhardy as it is not easy to hide any one dead let\nalone infected as people are well informed of the symptoms of the disease and\nare not afraid to tell on each other! Moreover actual figures have to be passed\non to the WHO almost daily!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Militarily powerful countries such as the USA, China,\nBritain, Russia, France gave prominence to maintaining their position of power\n– economically and militarily. These countries made humanitarian considerations\na lesser priority ahead of power and economy. All except China allowed \u2018herd\nimmunity\u2019 or \u2018natural survival of the fittest\u2019 concept priority though not\nsaying so in so many words. China attacked the pandemic almost as if it was war\nand has largely succeeded!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others gave prominence to their economies – these include\nGermany, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, India and to a lesser extent New\nZealand. In countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and a host of similar\nother countries, the Covid-19 situation is in free fall due to a host of other\nreasons including cultural, religious and the level of poverty or neglect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia,\nLaos, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Sri Lanka have fared well in terms of – the overall\nnumber of fatalities and infected \u2013 all well under one per million of population\ndead and those infected under one hundred per million of population. The former\nPrime Minister of Sri Lanka adduce these to the fact these countries are\nlargely Buddhist and hence under the protection of well-meaning gods \u2013 perhaps\neyeing the Buddhist vote at the coming General Election!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All over the world \u2018near now or former authoritarian\ncountries\u2019 have fared well, their populations being rather \u2018compliant\u2019! Highly medically\nsanitized countries have fared worst probably for having depleted immunity. The\npopulation density too is a factor that should be taken into consideration in\ncomparisons. This though is not entirely a true indicator as high or very high\nconcentrations can happen in the cities of even sparsely populated countries!\nThe spread and control of Corvid-19 at the Dharavi  slum in Mumbai, India is a classic case now\nunder the microscope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final analysis when all is \u2018over or near over\u2019 there\nmust be an honest assessment as to how different countries fared during the\nCovid-19 pandemic taking into consideration all factors \u2013 strategic, economic,\nsocial, cultural and religious! I am fairly confident that Sri Lanka\u2019s\nperformance would be found at or near the very top!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarath Bulathsinghala It is not easy to compare the response of different countries with one yardstick. It is also not quite correct to say that the New Zealand Covid-19 Free Declaration is a camouflage. I should say that New Zealand handled the situation in a fair and humanitarian way and with a firm hand at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103598","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=103598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}