ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s ongoing third wave of COVID-19 which has claimed 2,205 lives was a consequence of the public’s disregard to health guidelines during the Sinhala & Tamil New Year in April, according to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
“Today, we are facing a third wave of coronavirus as a consequence of the people travelling in large groups in an improper manner during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year,” Rajapaksa said in a televised address to the nation June 25.
“A number of different strains of the virus have now entered into the country. The high transmissible nature of the new variants has created a more dangerous situation than ever before.
“The human resources and other facilities available to the health sector are inadequate to urgently deal with the situation when the virus spreads rapidly and the number of infected people increases alarmingly. Therefore, the government had to shut down the country again,” an official English translation of his speech quoted the president as saying.
The effectiveness of Sri Lanka’s four week-long lockdown has been questioned.
Thousands have been arrested for violating the curfew-style movement restrictions – among them celebrities who threw birthday parties and loudly protested an alleged double standard. The Kurunegala mayor was also in hot water when no less a person than the local Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) organised a birthday event in his name – in close proximity to the police station. The ASP was transferred, though no action appears to have been taken against the mayor.
Related: How effective has Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 lockdown been?
The government has also been criticised for shifting the blame to a fatigued public.
“Did the public oppose increasing PCR tests? We repeatedly told the health ministry that daily testing had reduced to fewer than 5,000 PCR tests a day, but they failed to increase it,” President of the Association of Government Medical Laboratory Technologists Ravi Kumudesh told reporters on April 22.
“The ministry must take full responsibility for issuing data to artificially ‘contain’ the spread and also for the decline in testing. They can’t pin it on the public and wash their hands,” he added. (Colombo/June25/2021)
(Colombo/June25/2021)