Preoccupied with its obsession of cracking down on the wave of ongoing protests, it appears that the powers that be have lost the plot in its fight against the raging Covid pandemic. The steep increase in the number of cases as well as deaths over the past week, point to a state of complacency and loss of focus.
The Donald Trump-style method of creating a false sense of success by reducing the number of tests so that a lesser case load could be shown, proved disastrous for the US, which, under Trump’s tenure, saw the pandemic situation go from bad to worse with over half a million deaths under his watch. With the advent of the Joe Biden administration, a combined strategy of increased testing coupled with an aggressive vaccination drive brought about immediate results with the surging death toll reduced to manageable levels almost overnight. The only thing that Biden did differently to Trump was test, test, and test.
Back here in Sri Lanka, the complacency that set in during the April holiday season and the resultant drop in testing capacity from 25,000 a day on average to around 15,000 a day, has been widely blamed for the onset of the third wave, which, by any yardstick, has been the most deadly so far with the number of cases as well as fatalities doubling overnight.
It now appears that the same complacency has set in once again in the backdrop of the vaccination drive which has gathered pace in the past couple of weeks, spurred by the arrival of long overdue stocks of vaccines. As a result, testing capacity fell to around 12,000 per day over a prolonged period during which time the country routinely reported 10% of positive cases from those tested, with daily fatalities hovering in the 40s. By all indications, the health authorities were snug in their collective belief that the situation was well under control. But the thing with a global pandemic of this nature is that one cannot script the narrative by artificially suppressing the numbers. The American example has proven it beyond doubt.
It is not for nothing that health authorities the world over, led by the World Health Organisation, have been preaching the mantra that the only way out is testing, testing, and more testing. That is the only way that spreaders can be identified and isolated. Sri Lanka did this so well in the first wave which earned it global praise, but with an election coming at a crucial juncture in that endeavour, the authorities lost the plot. That is what led to a second wave and a second lockdown in the latter part of last year.
Now, one-and-a-half years after the first lockdown, 325,000 cases and 5,000 deaths later, Sri Lanka seems to have learnt nothing and finds itself on the cusp of a fourth wave of the pandemic. Only this time, it threatens to be the deadliest yet, with the Delta variant lying at its root.
The sudden yet anticipated surge in the number of cases has led to an exponential increase in the demand for hospitalisation with most government as well as private hospitals currently overwhelmed and operating beyond capacity. What is cause for concern is that we are still nowhere near the anticipated peak, even though the average daily death toll has hit the 90s, which has prompted the authorities to resort to the worst-case scenario of home-based care for positive cases.
The Opposition has blamed the Government for prematurely opening up the country, which it claims has set the stage for a fourth wave. They allege that the circular recalling all state sector employees to report for physical duty at their respective places of work was motivated not by altruistic reasons but to stifle the ongoing protests by teachers and university academics. However, in what is now becoming its signature style, the move that seemed premature at best and disastrous at worst was rectified with a second circular issued within days of the first, stating that only selected batches of state sector employees need to report to work, and the respective department heads have been authorised to select those batches.
It was only days before that world-renowned clinical and public health virologist Prof. Malik Peiris warned that “the Delta variant, which played havoc in India, would have a major impact on Sri Lanka in the coming weeks”. It was despite this warning that the circular was issued, cancelling the work-from-home arrangements that were in place for some time. As a result, people were seen cramped up inside trains and busses on their way to and from work, signalling not only a return to what is regarded as normalcy in this part of the world but also the creation of fertile grounds for super spreading of the deadly virus.
Prof. Peiris had noted that even though Sri Lanka’s vaccine rollout was progressing well, two doses of a vaccine were needed to have a significant impact. With Delta on the rampage, “Sri Lanka is going to face the worst outbreak it had faced in the months ahead”, he predicted. Nevertheless, it is clear that even such dire warnings from one of the best brains on the subject have fallen on deaf ears.
It is to be appreciated that the Government finds itself in a Catch-22 situation with another lockdown meaning further economic devastation and loss of income for the majority of workers who make up the informal sector, which, by and large, accounts for over half of all workers. But then again, the great majority of the victims of the virus are also those from this very segment. It no doubt is a tough call and one that needs much deliberation on the part of the Government. If the authorities need moral support in this regard, it has already come from the medical community that has been relentlessly urging people to stay home, quite in contrast to the Government's call to get back to work.
Five thousand souls lost is not something that can be glossed over. Each of those souls and their families, many of them without a breadwinner, deserve accountability at the very minimum. Had the vaccines arrived a little earlier, many of these lives could have been saved. Much soul searching is on the cards as to where the buck should stop in the blame game to follow.
Another renowned academic echoing the concerns of the medical fraternity has noted in a Twitter post that since the authorities have “decided to be brave and challenge the pandemic against all saner counsel, it must put its money where its mouth is and invest in building many more crematoriums, as they too have reached maximum capacity”. There are reports that some crematoriums have been forced to operate 24/7. The message is clear. Things are going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
The authorities need to shake off the false sense of success owing to the vaccination drive because one dose does very little to prevent one from catching the Delta variant. According to the medical community, it takes both doses to form an effective barrier against the virus and despite the arrival of substantial stocks of vaccines, Sri Lanka is still a fair distance from administering both doses of the jab to at least a quarter of the population. In the case of Sinopharm, which by and large is the dominant brand of vaccine used, it requires both jabs plus another two weeks for it to kick into action, which means that the month ahead will be crucial. Already around 20% of those tested are showing up positive, almost double the numbers from a month ago. Even some frontline medical staff who have received both doses are testing positive. The lesson is that nothing can be taken for granted.
As we have preached incessantly in these very columns, the people will not take this threat seriously until and unless the Government projects the actual scale of the threat. In a country where people are used to taking anything and everything for granted, creating a false sense of security with the administration of one dose of the vaccine is akin to playing with fire. Playing with fire
07 Aug 2021
Playing with fire
07 Aug 2021
Preoccupied with its obsession of cracking down on the wave of ongoing protests, it appears that the powers that be have lost the plot in its fight against the raging Covid pandemic. The steep increase in the number of cases as well as deaths over the past week, point to a state of complacency and loss of focus.
The Donald Trump-style method of creating a false sense of success by reducing the number of tests so that a lesser case load could be shown, proved disastrous for the US, which, under Trump’s tenure, saw the pandemic situation go from bad to worse with over half a million deaths under his watch. With the advent of the Joe Biden administration, a combined strategy of increased testing coupled with an aggressive vaccination drive brought about immediate results with the surging death toll reduced to manageable levels almost overnight. The only thing that Biden did differently to Trump was test, test, and test.
Back here in Sri Lanka, the complacency that set in during the April holiday season and the resultant drop in testing capacity from 25,000 a day on average to around 15,000 a day, has been widely blamed for the onset of the third wave, which, by any yardstick, has been the most deadly so far with the number of cases as well as fatalities doubling overnight.
It now appears that the same complacency has set in once again in the backdrop of the vaccination drive which has gathered pace in the past couple of weeks, spurred by the arrival of long overdue stocks of vaccines. As a result, testing capacity fell to around 12,000 per day over a prolonged period during which time the country routinely reported 10% of positive cases from those tested, with daily fatalities hovering in the 40s. By all indications, the health authorities were snug in their collective belief that the situation was well under control. But the thing with a global pandemic of this nature is that one cannot script the narrative by artificially suppressing the numbers. The American example has proven it beyond doubt.
It is not for nothing that health authorities the world over, led by the World Health Organisation, have been preaching the mantra that the only way out is testing, testing, and more testing. That is the only way that spreaders can be identified and isolated. Sri Lanka did this so well in the first wave which earned it global praise, but with an election coming at a crucial juncture in that endeavour, the authorities lost the plot. That is what led to a second wave and a second lockdown in the latter part of last year.
Now, one-and-a-half years after the first lockdown, 325,000 cases and 5,000 deaths later, Sri Lanka seems to have learnt nothing and finds itself on the cusp of a fourth wave of the pandemic. Only this time, it threatens to be the deadliest yet, with the Delta variant lying at its root.
The sudden yet anticipated surge in the number of cases has led to an exponential increase in the demand for hospitalisation with most government as well as private hospitals currently overwhelmed and operating beyond capacity. What is cause for concern is that we are still nowhere near the anticipated peak, even though the average daily death toll has hit the 90s, which has prompted the authorities to resort to the worst-case scenario of home-based care for positive cases.
The Opposition has blamed the Government for prematurely opening up the country, which it claims has set the stage for a fourth wave. They allege that the circular recalling all state sector employees to report for physical duty at their respective places of work was motivated not by altruistic reasons but to stifle the ongoing protests by teachers and university academics. However, in what is now becoming its signature style, the move that seemed premature at best and disastrous at worst was rectified with a second circular issued within days of the first, stating that only selected batches of state sector employees need to report to work, and the respective department heads have been authorised to select those batches.
It was only days before that world-renowned clinical and public health virologist Prof. Malik Peiris warned that “the Delta variant, which played havoc in India, would have a major impact on Sri Lanka in the coming weeks”. It was despite this warning that the circular was issued, cancelling the work-from-home arrangements that were in place for some time. As a result, people were seen cramped up inside trains and busses on their way to and from work, signalling not only a return to what is regarded as normalcy in this part of the world but also the creation of fertile grounds for super spreading of the deadly virus.
Prof. Peiris had noted that even though Sri Lanka’s vaccine rollout was progressing well, two doses of a vaccine were needed to have a significant impact. With Delta on the rampage, “Sri Lanka is going to face the worst outbreak it had faced in the months ahead”, he predicted. Nevertheless, it is clear that even such dire warnings from one of the best brains on the subject have fallen on deaf ears.
It is to be appreciated that the Government finds itself in a Catch-22 situation with another lockdown meaning further economic devastation and loss of income for the majority of workers who make up the informal sector, which, by and large, accounts for over half of all workers. But then again, the great majority of the victims of the virus are also those from this very segment. It no doubt is a tough call and one that needs much deliberation on the part of the Government. If the authorities need moral support in this regard, it has already come from the medical community that has been relentlessly urging people to stay home, quite in contrast to the Government's call to get back to work.
Five thousand souls lost is not something that can be glossed over. Each of those souls and their families, many of them without a breadwinner, deserve accountability at the very minimum. Had the vaccines arrived a little earlier, many of these lives could have been saved. Much soul searching is on the cards as to where the buck should stop in the blame game to follow.
Another renowned academic echoing the concerns of the medical fraternity has noted in a Twitter post that since the authorities have “decided to be brave and challenge the pandemic against all saner counsel, it must put its money where its mouth is and invest in building many more crematoriums, as they too have reached maximum capacity”. There are reports that some crematoriums have been forced to operate 24/7. The message is clear. Things are going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
The authorities need to shake off the false sense of success owing to the vaccination drive because one dose does very little to prevent one from catching the Delta variant. According to the medical community, it takes both doses to form an effective barrier against the virus and despite the arrival of substantial stocks of vaccines, Sri Lanka is still a fair distance from administering both doses of the jab to at least a quarter of the population. In the case of Sinopharm, which by and large is the dominant brand of vaccine used, it requires both jabs plus another two weeks for it to kick into action, which means that the month ahead will be crucial. Already around 20% of those tested are showing up positive, almost double the numbers from a month ago. Even some frontline medical staff who have received both doses are testing positive. The lesson is that nothing can be taken for granted.
As we have preached incessantly in these very columns, the people will not take this threat seriously until and unless the Government projects the actual scale of the threat. In a country where people are used to taking anything and everything for granted, creating a false sense of security with the administration of one dose of the vaccine is akin to playing with fire. Kapruka
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Discover Kapruka, the leading online shopping platform in Sri Lanka, where you can conveniently send Gifts and Flowers to your loved ones for any event. Explore a wide range of popular Shopping Categories on Kapruka, including Toys, Groceries, Electronics, Birthday Cakes, Fruits, Chocolates, Automobile, Mother and Baby Products, Clothing, and Fashion. Additionally, Kapruka offers unique online services like Money Remittance, Astrology, Medicine Delivery, and access to over 700 Top Brands. Also If you’re interested in selling with Kapruka, Partner Central by Kapruka is the best solution to start with. Moreover, through Kapruka Global Shop, you can also enjoy the convenience of purchasing products from renowned platforms like Amazon and eBay and have them delivered to Sri Lanka.Send love straight to their heart this Valentine's with our thoughtful gifts!