Stepping out, safely
When people step out following the partial lifting of the curfew in most parts of the country, the question on everyone’s lips should be: ‘Is it safe?’
Sri Lankans from Jaffna to Matara and Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kurunegala and Kandy, in 21 districts in all, began a semblance of what might seem ‘normal’ life yesterday. But the evil spectre of COVID-19 loomed over the nation as the most populated region, which includes the economic and political centre, stayed rigidly isolated and yet reverberating with continuous detections of infections and, lockdowns of neighbourhood after neighbourhood.
The sheer ferocity of the epidemic is such that, in recent weeks, the infection count has been increasing by the hour virtually. After a spate of COVID-19 detections in the past week alone, the total number of infected cases stood at 611 last evening. The most encouraging aspect remains the low death toll. But the recent actual acceleration of the epidemic rather than its slowing down must be a sharp warning to all.
It took literally months since the entry of the disease in late January for the number of positive cases to reach 200 in late March. Scarily, the count then more than doubled in the past three weeks. Given this acceleration of the spread, readers should not be under any illusion that this epidemic is going to disappear soon.
Yesterday’s partial relaxing of the curfew must only be seen as a ‘test’ run: the authorities are watching closely to see how much – not ‘if’ - the disease will spread because of the freed up movement of people. We simply must realise that the relaxing of certain strictures is not due to a lessening of the threat.
Rather, it is a tentative effort by a besieged nation to resuscitate a staggering economy, stunted livelihoods and, family nurturing even in the midst of the contagion. We are being allowed to step out, move around and do many things at the risk of being infected or infecting others because the nation has no choice if we are to continue with life in a constructive way.
The partial lifting of curfew, the segregation of some areas under continued lockdown, and all the intricate rules for people’s movements – the allocation of movement in public to limited groups according to our National Identity Card numbers – are all firm signals to the citizenry that our new ‘freedom’ is a freedom of movement within a COVID-19 world.
Surely, our experience of swift spreading of the infection must impress on us that even the slightest slip up in our precautionary measures, the tiniest breaking of the now familiar anti-COVID rules, will be enough to further worsen the contagion.
As we begin stepping out in order to undertake absolutely essential tasks – from food replenishment to studies to medical treatment to livelihoods – our challenge is to keep the inevitable spread of the disease to the lowest possible levels. If, due to carelessness, we allow the rate of spread of the disease to accelerate, all it means is further lockdowns and further delaying of economic revival.
This warning is being reiterated in these columns and in many public announcements via all the national media because all it takes is for just one among the millions of Sri Lankans to either carelessly or selfishly or ignorantly break the rules and spread the virus. In one case, a single barber caused a viral spread.
An entire naval base with over 4,000 personnel and families in Welisara also had to be locked down. And since it was Navy personnel affected, it meant that the Navy’s contribution to fighting the epidemic was that much weakened. The Security Forces are in the vanguard of the fight against the Coronavirus and they have to take extra steps to ensure their protection. In this context, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a Presidential Task Force to ensure the health security of all Security Forces camps throughout the country. A panel of experts in the Task Force will visit all Forces camps in the country, assess their health security conditions and give any recommendations for improvement. This is a commendable step.
Those of us in the Western Province and the Puttalam district have yet a week more of lockdown before we can also step out. Because the virus is most active in our areas, we will need to be even more disciplined.
The varied curfew regime is itself to be seen as a new lifestyle for the months to come. The rostered allocation of right of movement in public – based on our NIC numbers – will have be understood and rigidly followed if these measures are to have any effect. There will be no point in being lax and then blaming the inevitable repercussions on the measures themselves. We will be to blame, not the system. And if we individually fail, the society is weakened and our social progress beyond this epidemic slowed down.
When people step out following the partial lifting of the curfew in most parts of the country, the question on everyone’s lips should be: ‘Is it safe?’
Sri Lankans from Jaffna to Matara and Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kurunegala and Kandy, in 21 districts in all, began a semblance of what might seem ‘normal’ life yesterday. But the evil spectre of COVID-19 loomed over the nation as the most populated region, which includes the economic and political centre, stayed rigidly isolated and yet reverberating with continuous detections of infections and, lockdowns of neighbourhood after neighbourhood.
The sheer ferocity of the epidemic is such that, in recent weeks, the infection count has been increasing by the hour virtually. After a spate of COVID-19 detections in the past week alone, the total number of infected cases stood at 611 last evening. The most encouraging aspect remains the low death toll. But the recent actual acceleration of the epidemic rather than its slowing down must be a sharp warning to all.
It took literally months since the entry of the disease in late January for the number of positive cases to reach 200 in late March. Scarily, the count then more than doubled in the past three weeks. Given this acceleration of the spread, readers should not be under any illusion that this epidemic is going to disappear soon.
Yesterday’s partial relaxing of the curfew must only be seen as a ‘test’ run: the authorities are watching closely to see how much – not ‘if’ - the disease will spread because of the freed up movement of people. We simply must realise that the relaxing of certain strictures is not due to a lessening of the threat.
Rather, it is a tentative effort by a besieged nation to resuscitate a staggering economy, stunted livelihoods and, family nurturing even in the midst of the contagion. We are being allowed to step out, move around and do many things at the risk of being infected or infecting others because the nation has no choice if we are to continue with life in a constructive way.
The partial lifting of curfew, the segregation of some areas under continued lockdown, and all the intricate rules for people’s movements – the allocation of movement in public to limited groups according to our National Identity Card numbers – are all firm signals to the citizenry that our new ‘freedom’ is a freedom of movement within a COVID-19 world.
Surely, our experience of swift spreading of the infection must impress on us that even the slightest slip up in our precautionary measures, the tiniest breaking of the now familiar anti-COVID rules, will be enough to further worsen the contagion.
As we begin stepping out in order to undertake absolutely essential tasks – from food replenishment to studies to medical treatment to livelihoods – our challenge is to keep the inevitable spread of the disease to the lowest possible levels. If, due to carelessness, we allow the rate of spread of the disease to accelerate, all it means is further lockdowns and further delaying of economic revival.
This warning is being reiterated in these columns and in many public announcements via all the national media because all it takes is for just one among the millions of Sri Lankans to either carelessly or selfishly or ignorantly break the rules and spread the virus. In one case, a single barber caused a viral spread.
An entire naval base with over 4,000 personnel and families in Welisara also had to be locked down. And since it was Navy personnel affected, it meant that the Navy’s contribution to fighting the epidemic was that much weakened. The Security Forces are in the vanguard of the fight against the Coronavirus and they have to take extra steps to ensure their protection. In this context, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a Presidential Task Force to ensure the health security of all Security Forces camps throughout the country. A panel of experts in the Task Force will visit all Forces camps in the country, assess their health security conditions and give any recommendations for improvement. This is a commendable step.
Those of us in the Western Province and the Puttalam district have yet a week more of lockdown before we can also step out. Because the virus is most active in our areas, we will need to be even more disciplined.
The varied curfew regime is itself to be seen as a new lifestyle for the months to come. The rostered allocation of right of movement in public – based on our NIC numbers – will have be understood and rigidly followed if these measures are to have any effect. There will be no point in being lax and then blaming the inevitable repercussions on the measures themselves. We will be to blame, not the system. And if we individually fail, the society is weakened and our social progress beyond this epidemic slowed down.
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