COVID-19: HEALTH GUIDELINES ARE NOT TO BE COMPROMISED

In the wake of the harrowing months-long coronavirus-related lock-downs and curfews still lingering in our minds came a news report which caused panic in Matara after it was found that a Russian staying at a boutique hotel in Polhena, Matara tested positive for Covid-19. He was one of a 15-member aircrew of a Russian cargo flight, which landed at the Mattala Airport during the last week of September.

Investigations have revealed that an administrative lapse or an oversight resulted in the crew members leaving the airport without being subjected to PCR tests and a period of quarantine. Given the situation Sri Lanka is currently facing these are lapses or oversights, especially by officials at entry and exit points, are not acceptable and cannot be allowed to happen.

This has now turned out to be a precursor to a larger scare amid reports of what initially began as a single case of a 39-year-old Brandix employee at the Minuwangoda Factory in the Gampaha district testing positive for COVID-19. As of last afternoon the number of infected patients stood at 1022. It includes her 16-year-old daughter, factory workers and others in what has now come to be known as the Minuwangoda factory cluster. Sri Lankans were taken by surprise with alarm bells ringing across the country where people were growing complacent by the day in the mistaken belief that the deadly virus had loosened if not was loosening its vicious grip and that the spread of the disease was on a downward trend.

The National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) Chief, Army Commander Shavendra Silva urged people to avoid crowded areas as much as possible and adhere to the prescribed health guidelines because the authorities were yet to establish how the apparel worker had, in the first instance, contracted the disease. He said the woman had been treated at a private dispensary prior to being admitted to the Gampaha Hospital with a respiratory tract infection. As a precautionary measure, a curfew was imposed in several police areas in Gampaha, including Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Veyangoda.

In an effort to further restrict the spread of the disease, the students and teachers of the Divulapitiya school, which the woman’s daughter was attending, were placed under self-quarantine with schools and tuition classes countrywide being closed. This unexpected spread of the COVID-19 virus, for the first time in several months, on a larger scale than the clusters at the Welisara Navy Camp and the Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre was a stark reminder that there need to be only a single virusinfected patient to spread the disease among a host of others. It is also an eye-opener to all Sri Lankans that we need to remain alert and strictly adhere to the recommended health guidelines such as that of washing our hands with soap, avoiding crowded places, maintaining physical distancing and the wearing of face masks. These measures may seem uncomfortable but it is much better to experience some form of discomfort rather than infecting oneself or being a source of infection to others we come in contact with.

There is no gain saying the fact that as citizens of Sri Lanka we are stakeholders in the welfare of this nation, whether it is the economy, the environment or in this instance, the matter we are focusing on today, the health of its people and as such the least we could do is to cooperate with the health authorities and the security forces and follow the regulations laid down to curb or to mitigate the spread of the disease.

The gravity of the current situation engulfing the country is clearly shown by the statement made by Sri Lanka’s Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Sudath Samaraweera that the Minuwangoda factory cluster is by far the biggest challenge faced by the authorities mainly because the original source of the infection was still to be established.

Meanwhile, the State Minister of Transport has instructed all bus operators to carry passengers in keeping with the seating capacity in buses. This was one of the strictures laid down when public transport was permitted in the aftermath of the early days of the COVID-19 onslaught. But unfortunately the strictures were more often than not observed in the breach and without proper supervision or follow-up action, which are essential in Sri Lanka, on this occasion too, the outcome of the state minister’s instructions will most likely fall by the wayside.

We said it then and will say it again; there is no way that the health guidelines could be compromised.