ECONOMYNEXT – As Sri Lanka confirmed a record 171 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday (17), a trade union threatened a 10-day self-imposed lockdown starting next Monday (23), while government and opposition MPs traded charges on who was to blame for the country’s worst public health crisis in recent times.
Declaring their intent to start a lockdown, Inter-Company Employees’ Union Chairman and former Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Wasantha Samarasinghe said Tuesday afternoon that, if the government doesn’t announce a “scientific lockdown” by Friday (20), their members in government and private sectors, estates and other sectors of the economy will go into a self-imposed lockdown next Monday onward.
The union’s demand comes as media reports said business in at least 31 towns across the island have suspended operations in the face of surging COVID-19 deaths and infections, many of which are attributed to the fast-spreading delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease.
Many businesses will be closed over the next two weeks, reports said, as COVID-19 continues to overwhelm the country’s health sector.
With Tuesday’s 171 deaths, the COVID-19 death toll in Sri Lanka has shot up to 6,434. At the time of writing, 2,663 new infections were confirmed, bringing total COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka since March last year to 364,737. The announcement from the government information department came hours after State Minister Channa Jayasumana told parliament that three mutations of the delta variant have been discovered in Sri Lanka.
Related: Three mutations of delta strain discovered in Sri Lanka: minister
Jayasumana also blamed the spike in cases on the wave of protest marches and demonstrations that swept the country in July.
“Health experts had warned us by July 15-18 of the dangers of the new variant, but the [main opposition] Samagi Jana Balavegaya and the JVP organised protests all over the country, helping the virus spread,” he told parliament.
“Now these same people are saying the government should take responsibility,” he added.
Though the protests have now come to a halt in view of the growing outbreak, detractors of the government contend that it’s more likely that superspreader indoor events such as weddings – which the government had permitted until midnight Tuesday – were just as likely, if not more so, to contribute to the spread.
There have also been allegations of manipulated data.
“Data released by the government [don’t represent actual numbers of daily COVID-19 cases]. These lives that are being lost cannot be brought back,” said Samarasinghe, at the union collective’s press conference.
Samarasinghe was referring to what may be a significant discrepancy between daily COVID-19 cases confirmed by Sri Lanka’s health authorities and the number of people that actually test positive on a given day.
Eastern Province Health Services Provincial Director Dr R M Thaufeeque told reporters last Wednesday (11) that 837 cases found in the Eastern province the previous day (10) did not tally with the 194 cases reported by the health ministry’s epidemiology unit.
“We identified 342 patients in Batticaloa, 227 in Ampara, 105 in Kalmunai and 163 in Trincomalee,” said Thaufeeque.
However, according to the epid unit, the numbers for last Tuesday in the Eastern province were: 45 in Batticaloa, 78 in Ampara and Kalmunai, and 71 in Trincomalee.
The same discrepancy was brought up in parliament this Tuesday by SJB MP and former health minister Rajitha Senaratne who claimed a shadowy major general in the army has been manipulating government data.
“It’s easier for you than for me to find out who this major general is,” Senaratne told government MPs.
“We won’t mention the name today, but it will be revealed in due course,” he said.
The trade unions’ call for a lockdown – a repeat of repeated calls by the medical community – was echoed by opposition leader and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa in parliament Tuesday morning.
Inviting the government to learn from past mistakes, Premadasa said Sri Lanka must follow the advice offered by a group of experts that World Health Organisation (WHO) Sri Lanka had convened earlier this month for a discussion on the island nation’s COVID-19 situation.
The experts, among who was Prof Malik Peiris, Chair/Professor of the School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong, called for swift and stringent mobility restrictions to save some 18,000 lives by January 2022.
Related: Act now to save 18,000 lives, experts convened by WHO Sri Lanka urge
“If we go for a two-week lockdown for a start, we can bring that 6,000 down to 1,000, and the 220 to 25,” said Premadasa.
“Are we ready to save these lives as a country? As the opposition, we are ready. Is the government ready?” he added.
Recalling his own brush with the disease – Premadasa had tested positive for asymptomatic COVID-19 some months ago – the opposition leader said: “I don’t hesitate to say I was afraid for my life. Millions in Sri Lanka are now facing that same fear.”
“Let’s all get together and ask the president to lock down the country for two weeks,” he added.
Premadasa had previously declined vaccination against COVID-19, claiming that he would wait his turn until the rest of the population was vaccinated. His and other MPs’ delay in getting the vaccine was criticised by some commentators as promoting vaccine hesitancy in Sri Lanka. However, Premadasa got the shot on August 03 under “strict instructions of doctors”.
Meanwhile, former president Maithripala Sirisena speaking in parliament requested President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for a meeting of party leaders representing parliament.
“I think we can do more to obtain WHO support. In this exercise, we have to listen to everyone and be flexible,” he added.
Newly sworn-in health minister Keheliya Rambukwella, however, is not keen on a lockdown proper.
“We have to bear in mind that all these variants can enter the country at any point. That’s how the health sector has functioned [through this crisis]. We hope the variants don’t come here, but we cannot predict that with certainty. We don’t have a permanent mechanism to stop them from coming in,” he said speaking at an event on Tuesday.
“One idea is to lockdown for two weeks. We locked down for months, but what happened? This how it is in the [rest of the] world too.
“Then there are daily wage earners. No one talks about them,” he added.
The minister also defended a newly introduced curfew between 10pm and 4am, which some have criticised as being futile in the face of the highly infectious delta.
“Curfew at that time is important because it will put a stop to things like beach parties. This is as far as we can go. If we go beyond that, this country will be pushed to place we cannot imagine. We’re trying to contain the situation by meeting at a midpoint [between these extremes],” he said.
The new health minister’s position notwithstanding, the “forced lockdown” by unions will go ahead, the union representatives insisted.
President of the Government Nursing Officers’ Association Saman Rathnapriya, who spoke with Samarasinghe and others at Tuesday’s press conference, said: “A scientific lockdown is a must now. Do it for 10 days.”
Rathnapriya also called for a total border closure during this period.
“There is no need for airplanes with people onboard to land during this period,” he said.
“We urge the public to get ready to do this with us,” he added.
Joint Council for Professions of Supplementary Medicine (JCPSM) president Ravi Kumudesh who also spoke at the event said it is time the government stopped being stubborn and listened to the experts.
“We’re not ready to give this job to the gods and look the other way,” he said, in an apparent jab at health minister Rambukwella who famously said some days before his appointment that, once Sri Lanka’s vaccine rollout is complete, “the rest is up to the gods”.
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“By Monday, we’re going to have to force a lockdown in this country,” said Kumudesh.
He also warned against a lockdown for the sake of a lockdown, accusing the government of imposing movement restrictions in name only.
“There are five times more patients than are currently being found. Impose this scientific lockdown, and we shall take the responsibility of doing 100,000 tests,” he said. (Colombo/Aug17/2021)