{"id":111741,"date":"2021-02-16T17:13:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111741"},"modified":"2021-02-16T17:13:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:13:59","slug":"sri-lankan-infection-rate-heading-towards-100000-quo-vadis-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/16\/sri-lankan-infection-rate-heading-towards-100000-quo-vadis-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan infection rate heading towards 100,000; Quo Vadis COVID 19?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Latin\nphrase Quo Vadis denotes an episode from the life of Saint Peter, as told in\nthe New Testament Apocrypha and the ‘Golden Legend’. Peter fled from Rome\nduring the persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero; as he was\ntravelling along the Appian Way he met Christ in a vision. Astonished, he asked\n‘Domine quo vadis?’ (‘Lord, where are you going?’). Christ replied that he was\ngoing to Rome to be crucified a second time. Peter then realised that his\ndeparture from the city was cowardly and returned to face whatever persecutions\nmight befall him. www.nationalgallery.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase\nQuo Vadis\u201d or where are you going or in Sinhala Koheda Yanne?\u201d seems to have\nsimilarities to the COVID pandemic in Sri Lanka. Does the country and those\ngoverning it know which direction it is heading? The UK variant is said to be\nin the country now and it is reported to be much more infectious than the virus\ncurrently spreading uncontrolled in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the\ncountry exceeded by an average around 800-900 daily and the total number of\nCOVID cases in the country now exceeds 76,000 and the death toll has passed 400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the current trend in infection rates persists,\nthe number of infected is bound to pass 100,000 within a month or so with the\ndeath rate exceeding 500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The compounding effect arising from such a\nnumber, should the rate of increase is even one percent, or 1000 cases a day,\nwould be very disturbing and concerning. It will not be long before the number\nof infections spread beyond 200,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course the vaccinations being rolled out\nshould arrest this number, but the scale of its roll out could be impacted by\nthe availability of vaccines and also the ability of the vaccine to slow down\nor halt the spread of infection which is not fully known as yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt the government has a strategy in\nmind and are working towards an objective. What seems to be missing is that the\npublic does not seem to know anything about such a strategy and the general\nfeeling amongst them is that the government does not know what its strategy is\nbeyond the introduction of the vaccination program and hoping that it will halt\nthe ever growing infection numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that the strategy is to live with\nthe virus and hope for the best. The growing numbers of infections, and deaths,\nalthough still just over 0.5% of the infected numbers, has to be of concern to\nthe public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite various rules about preventive\nmeasures, mask wearing, restriction on gathering numbers, washing hands etc, it\nappears to be selectively adhered to, with some in high places reportedly\nflouting their own rules. One rule for the privileged and one rule for the\nothers. The virus couldn\u2019t care less. It\u2019s the most socialist of all living\nbeings and treats everyone equally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt managing the pandemic and keeping\nthe economy going to some degree at the same time is a huge challenge for the\ngovernment, indeed for any government. There are many armchair critics who even\ndo not follow simple, basic rules like wearing masks in public places and not\nhaving large gatherings as if the virus will never get to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka and the world must be thankful that\nCOVID 19 is a more benign one than the Spanish flu of 1918. That killed more\nthan 20,000 people in Sri Lanka and between 50-100 million in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither that virus nor COVID 19 or its\nvariants, discriminate between the rich and the poor or between a King or a\nPresident and an ordinary person. However, it a King or a President or a Prime\nMinister who should lead the way and tell his or her constituents about the\nplans to contain the virus spread, and what plans are in place to move along\ntogether in these difficult times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka is no exception. The public should\nbe taken into confidence and told where things are, and where things will be\nwith the plans in place and importantly, the consequences if there is no\nadherence to basic prevention measures. Adherence to rules should be a civic\nresponsibility not something to be policed by law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is perhaps time that the President calls\nfor a special sitting of the Parliament and addressed the nation specifically\non the plans in place to contain the COVID 19 pandemic, where the country is\ngoing with plans in place, including the vaccination program and where the\ncountry will be if such plans are not followed or does not materialise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID 19 has no political affiliation. It\ncarries no ethnic or religious baggage. Meeting the challenges arising from the\npandemic and how such challenges can be met, should be done free of political\naffiliations. That would be a challenge for the virus. It is not just the\ngovernments sole responsibility to contain the pandemic, and it has to be done\nfree of politics. It has to be part of the Oppositions responsibility to work\nwith the government as much as it is the government\u2019s responsibility to engage\nwith the Opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the best of this writer\u2019s knowledge, the\ncountry is yet to witness a meeting of government leaders and the Leader of Opposition\nand leaders of other opposition parties where a non-partisan, national approach\nhas been discussed in regard to the COVID pandemic. The implementer has to be\nthe government, but the strategy needs to be more collectively owned. For\nexample, Australia introduced a National Government comprising of State\nPremiers and Territory Chief Minister to specifically come up with a broad\nnational policy on how to deal with the Pandemic and to manage such a policy\nsetting at a high level. Evidence shows it worked for Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe even at this stage, Sri Lanka could have\na more inclusive answer to the question Quo Vadis COVID 19? The pandemic is not\nover yet, so better late than never to have such an approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Raj Gonsalkorale The Latin phrase Quo Vadis denotes an episode from the life of Saint Peter, as told in the New Testament Apocrypha and the ‘Golden Legend’. Peter fled from Rome during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero; as he was travelling along the Appian Way he met Christ in a vision. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-raj-gonsalkorale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111741","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=111741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}