Our soldiers are also carers
The risks being run by the ‘first responders’ in this country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic are all the more apparent after the raft of positive cases detected among Navy troopers of the large Naval base at Welisara after their duty stints on the pandemic frontlines. After one naval officer reported positive, testing among personnel at the base showed a total of 60 people infected.
Now the entire base of 4,000 personnel and their families are under quarantine and are being subjected to tests. This is because those 60 personnel who have tested positive had been interacting with people inside the base. Relatives outside the base who had been visited in the interim by the some of the suspect infected persons have also been placed in self-quarantine.
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 infections climbed to 415 cases yesterday evening after these and other positive detections. The number of fatalities still remains at seven, thankfully.
The country’s doctors, nurses, medical attendants, technicians and health administrators are in the closest interaction with the pandemic. The personnel of the Police and Armed Forces are the next in line, along with various staff of the public services, in dealing with the health crisis that presently holds this island and much of the rest of the world in its deadly grip.
Our Forces personnel have a long and distinguished record of militarily defending the country in the modern era. Their success, experience and expertise have been internationally recognised and many foreign defence establishments have learnt from them. In times of disasters of different kinds, too, the Tri Forces have a long experience, perhaps the most prominent being the floods that have regularly occurred over the decades. The worst single disaster in which our troops tirelessly served was the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004.
Responding to a massive and yet unknown pandemic is something entirely new and has tested the skills and ingenuity of all our specialised health cadres as well as our police and Security Forces whose role it is to enforce the measures to deal with the pandemic and generally ensure social stability.
A hallmark of this pandemic is the subtlety and speed of its spread among the populace. This required all responding personnel and agencies to work at speed and constantly – no matter the risk and work load – to counter the contagion.
The full resources of skills of our Forces have been deployed for this purpose. The sheer speed with which the Army prepared the first quarantine facilities to receive incoming passengers from China and other countries has been recognised and admired. Today, the Forces run 46 such centres in different parts of the country and more are being built. Incoming expatriate Sri Lankans who have had to undergo quarantine have been full of praise at the quality of the facilities and care at these centres.
Meanwhile the Air Force has readied a light transport plane for deployment as an ‘air ambulance’ to collect positive cases or carry specialised cadres and equipment to COVID sites. The Army is providing transport units to carry much needed fertilizer to farmers in remote areas.
Various music bands and ensembles of the Tri Forces have been busy these past weeks of monotonous lockdown providing much needed entertainment to communities ‘gated’ in self-isolation.
Genuine, holistic caring of others necessarily involves altruism and some element of self-sacrifice. In all our religious traditions there are strong teachings of caring: from the Karuna and Metta of Buddhism to the Christian concepts of Love and Giving.
Our cadres of the Tri Forces are demonstrating well that they can be both soldiers as well as carers in the service of the nation in times of tribulation.
Ramazan in pandemic times
As with the other main faiths of this country, Islam is a powerful inspirer of human endeavour, courage and perseverance. The spiritual struggle so essential for consistent and pure observation of the faith is enabled by the exercise of discipline in life style.
Islam engages us in voluntary practices of such disciplining, the most exacting for the lay person being a whole month’s daily fasting periods. Muslim Sri Lankans will begin the month of Ramazan fasting today in a world of a pandemic.
Already, the Islamic teachers association and mosque leaderships have provided guidance to the community on the practice of Ramazan customs and prayers under the strict social hygiene conditions now in force. Washing of hands, face and feet is, in any case, a regular routine for the devout at prayer times.
In full compliance with the national health requirements, the faithful will avoid gatherings at mosques (which have been closed under lockdown) and even the evening Ifthar is to be served only at home, restricted to the immediate family.
Sri Lankans will no doubt miss the socializing and festive food of the usual Ramazan hospitality by their Muslim friends and neighbours, but having similarly undergone Easter and Avurudu under lockdown, everyone understands the needs of the times.
The risks being run by the ‘first responders’ in this country’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic are all the more apparent after the raft of positive cases detected among Navy troopers of the large Naval base at Welisara after their duty stints on the pandemic frontlines. After one naval officer reported positive, testing among personnel at the base showed a total of 60 people infected.
Now the entire base of 4,000 personnel and their families are under quarantine and are being subjected to tests. This is because those 60 personnel who have tested positive had been interacting with people inside the base. Relatives outside the base who had been visited in the interim by the some of the suspect infected persons have also been placed in self-quarantine.
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 infections climbed to 415 cases yesterday evening after these and other positive detections. The number of fatalities still remains at seven, thankfully.
The country’s doctors, nurses, medical attendants, technicians and health administrators are in the closest interaction with the pandemic. The personnel of the Police and Armed Forces are the next in line, along with various staff of the public services, in dealing with the health crisis that presently holds this island and much of the rest of the world in its deadly grip.
Our Forces personnel have a long and distinguished record of militarily defending the country in the modern era. Their success, experience and expertise have been internationally recognised and many foreign defence establishments have learnt from them. In times of disasters of different kinds, too, the Tri Forces have a long experience, perhaps the most prominent being the floods that have regularly occurred over the decades. The worst single disaster in which our troops tirelessly served was the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004.
Responding to a massive and yet unknown pandemic is something entirely new and has tested the skills and ingenuity of all our specialised health cadres as well as our police and Security Forces whose role it is to enforce the measures to deal with the pandemic and generally ensure social stability.
A hallmark of this pandemic is the subtlety and speed of its spread among the populace. This required all responding personnel and agencies to work at speed and constantly – no matter the risk and work load – to counter the contagion.
The full resources of skills of our Forces have been deployed for this purpose. The sheer speed with which the Army prepared the first quarantine facilities to receive incoming passengers from China and other countries has been recognised and admired. Today, the Forces run 46 such centres in different parts of the country and more are being built. Incoming expatriate Sri Lankans who have had to undergo quarantine have been full of praise at the quality of the facilities and care at these centres.
Meanwhile the Air Force has readied a light transport plane for deployment as an ‘air ambulance’ to collect positive cases or carry specialised cadres and equipment to COVID sites. The Army is providing transport units to carry much needed fertilizer to farmers in remote areas.
Various music bands and ensembles of the Tri Forces have been busy these past weeks of monotonous lockdown providing much needed entertainment to communities ‘gated’ in self-isolation.
Genuine, holistic caring of others necessarily involves altruism and some element of self-sacrifice. In all our religious traditions there are strong teachings of caring: from the Karuna and Metta of Buddhism to the Christian concepts of Love and Giving.
Our cadres of the Tri Forces are demonstrating well that they can be both soldiers as well as carers in the service of the nation in times of tribulation.
Ramazan in pandemic times
As with the other main faiths of this country, Islam is a powerful inspirer of human endeavour, courage and perseverance. The spiritual struggle so essential for consistent and pure observation of the faith is enabled by the exercise of discipline in life style.
Islam engages us in voluntary practices of such disciplining, the most exacting for the lay person being a whole month’s daily fasting periods. Muslim Sri Lankans will begin the month of Ramazan fasting today in a world of a pandemic.
Already, the Islamic teachers association and mosque leaderships have provided guidance to the community on the practice of Ramazan customs and prayers under the strict social hygiene conditions now in force. Washing of hands, face and feet is, in any case, a regular routine for the devout at prayer times.
In full compliance with the national health requirements, the faithful will avoid gatherings at mosques (which have been closed under lockdown) and even the evening Ifthar is to be served only at home, restricted to the immediate family.
Sri Lankans will no doubt miss the socializing and festive food of the usual Ramazan hospitality by their Muslim friends and neighbours, but having similarly undergone Easter and Avurudu under lockdown, everyone understands the needs of the times.
