Covid-19 is here, but don't panic
Multiple crucial events occurred simultaneously in Sri Lanka and across the world as the new coronavirus continued its rampage, spreading mass fear and panic, which officials in the country said were unwarranted.
As Sri Lanka detected its first confirmed local case infected with COVID-19 this week (on Tuesday, March 10), followed by nine more (at the time of going to press), there was a frenzy of panic buying in attempts to stock up food and other commodities.
There is no food shortage and everything including essential items are available, Information Minister Bandula Gunawardana told a media briefing last afternoon, with Essential Food Commodities, Importers & Traders Association President G. Rajendran stressing that there is no shortfall in the wholesale market and there is no need to panic.
There is a small scarcity of big onions but that too would ease when stocks from India arrive on Monday, said Mr. Rajendran.
With the rumour- mill working overtime and social media jumping into the fray, some sources alleged that “fake news was spreading faster than the virus.”
Check any information from official sources before sending it out to the public – was the strong plea from several government quarters this week including the DirectorGeneral of Health Services, Dr. Anil Jasinghe; the Director-General of the Government Information Department, Nalaka Kaluwewa; and the Consumer Affairs Authority Chairman Major-General (Retired), D.M.S. Dissanayake.
They kept assuring that there is “absolutely” no need for panic buying or for fear.
With regard to the first Sri Lankan detected with COVID-19, in the country – the 52- year- old chauffer tourist guide from the Colombo district and the second, a 44-year-old who had come into contact with him at Dambulla, Dr.
Jasinghe said that both are being managed and treated in isolation at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID).
“The two patients had slept in close quarters,” he told a media briefing on Friday, explaining that 60 contacts of the first patient and 25 contacts of the second patient have been traced. Five contacts of the first patient and eight contacts of the second patient are “suspected” cases and are in some of the designated hospitals. The others including the patients’ family members are being quarantined in their homes.
Dr. Jasinghe said that both the WHO and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have offered their support to Sri Lanka.
The WHO would give Sri Lanka equipment worth US$ 100,000, while the ADB has allocated a $ 600,000 grant from the Health System Enhancement Project to finance preventive and response efforts in the country, it is learnt.
Meanwhile, giving details of the first patient, an Italian-speaking chauffer tourist guide, the President of the Chauffeur Tourist Guide Lecturers’ Association (CTGLA), Chandima Jayaweera, said that having worked in Italy for some time, this person had returned to Sri Lanka and followed a course in chauffeur guiding in 2007, before working freelance for companies. He has a seven-seater van and in the last few weeks he had taken two or three different Italian groups on tours.
The CTGLA has a membership of around 1,200 active members.
“When another guide met the person now affected by COVID-19 on February 27 too he had had ‘a little cough’,” he said, adding that they believe that the last tour from March 3- 8 was with a family of Italians. Many Italian tourists come on short tours, with the popular spots visited being Dambulla and Kandy and sometimes finally a beach resort.
The usual routine of these chauffeur guides is to go to the company from which they have got a tour and pick up the tourpack which gives all the details of the tour. On the due date, the guides then head to the airport and pick up their clients and follow the tour route. Once the tour is over, they either drop them off at the airport or at the last resort where the Italians may spend a few more days. While a particular tour group stays in the hotels booked prior to their arrival by the company, the guides get lodgings for the night in a dormitory at these hotels. Some of the dormitories can accommodate over 40.
Mr. Jayaweera said that at a meeting held with the Sri Lanka Inbound Tour Operators (SLITO) on Friday, the CTGLA had requested the temporary stoppage of tourists arriving in Sri Lanka, but the decision is pending.