Lanka awakes to COVID-19 as deadly virus bursts floodgates
Quarantine for returning Lankans, free entry for Chinese from China
Lanka received her wake-up call early February when a female Chinese tourist was tested positive for the coronavirus and was admitted immediately to the Infectious Diseases Hospital ( IDH) for treatment of the feared viral attack that locked down many parts of China and had no known cure.
Though alarm bells rang through the local populace and had many in the city frantically purchasing their own half burqas to wear round their faces like knickers around their pelvis, in order to prevent being infected by another’s sneeze or cough, complacency soon settled in and the sound of the tolling bells turned to a drab drone and the strapping of masks became a tiresome chore when no further cases were reported.
If threatening clouds had still hovered portending an outbreak, they were swiftly dispelled when the welcome news broke that the corona-infected Chinese woman had made a complete recovery and, free of the COVID19, was a fitting object to be kissed on both cheeks by Health Minister Pavithra before news cameras on her discharge.
The settled, balming view that made the masks come off, was that it was an isolated case, a one off incident. The unfortunate Chinese woman who came from China’s Wuhan city, the birthplace of the Chinese bat borne virus, had contracted the ‘Born in China’ invisible killer molecule in China and had been detected while holidaying in Lanka and had been treated by an expert team of doctors who had successfully exorcised the devil’s dragon that had taken residence to spout hell fires within her frail frame. It had not only been a medical success but its occurrence in Lanka had been an anomaly now laid to rest.
Not only did the Lankans lower their guard along with their protective masks but exulted being one country that had, by the precautionary measures the authourities adopted at ports of entry, victoriously fended off the sneaky COVID invader. So much so that one optimistic tour operator in London was busy planning a campaign to promote Lanka as an ideal COVID-free holiday destination.
This Wednesday, March 11, the bubble burst.
Lankans awoke to find the ‘coronavirus’ had landed. Landed on the isle shores of this thrice blessed land. With the moat crossed, the fort walls scaled and the citadel stormed and the throne room broken into, the COVID invasion to take the first few steps to root firmly on Lankan soil and lay a siege of fear on the landscape has now been successfully accomplished.
This time it was no tourist on holiday who could be wished away to her country of origin. This time the icing may have come from a foreign nozzle but the cake was home baked.
The unfortunate victim was soon identified as a 52-year-old man, a tour guide who had just returned home after taking a group of Italian tourists to see the wondrous sights Lanka showcased. After developing COVID symptoms, he had tested positive for the virus. Initial reports indicate that he had been in Dickwella, Kandy and Dambulla with a group of Italian tourists from March 2 to 8. He is reported to have met the second Lankan to be tested positive in Dickwella. The first victim’s family have been quarantined and are under observation while the second victim’s family of eight are reported to have tested positive for COVID.
A further sixty Lankans who have shown symptoms are currently being kept under observation.
According to Health Services Director General Dr. Anil Jasinghe, ‘three more suspected coronavirus patients have been now tested positive, bringing the total of confirmed patients to five. He said, they include a 41- year- old Sri Lankan who had arrived in Sri Lanka from Germany and was undergoing treatment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Angoda while the other two, aged 37 and 43, had arrived from Italy and had been under quarantine at the Kandakadu quarantine centre in Batticaloa and had developed symptoms. The 37-year-old Sri Lankan was admitted to the Polonnaruwa General Hospital and the 43- year- old Sri Lankan was admitted to the IDH.
In Colombo and other major cities and towns, another form of widespread panic to rival the COVID pandemic panic has been reported: Panic buying. Hundreds of people with cash or credit cards in hand were filling their trolleys to the brim with food stuffs to feed a platoon for a month thereby depleting supermarket shelves and selfishly denying the less fortunate with the bare essentials to survive the weekend.
Following on the heels of America’s drastic action to ban all flight to the USA from Europe with the sole exception of Britain, the following are a few precautionary measures the Government has taken to minimise the virus from entering the country aboard a human host.
The Government has suspended the issuance of visas to European passengers for two weeks as a precautionary measure against the COVID- 19 outbreak. The decision was taken by the Task Force on coronavirus which met on Friday at the presidential secretariat with the participation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Government has also decided to subject Sri Lankans arriving from European countries to be quarantined for two weeks and instructed the relevant authorities to study the precautionary measures taken by China to prevent the outbreak of the virus.
It has also decided to sterilise the public transport such as trains and buses from today and attention was dawn to make face masks available at a controlled price and regularise their distribution so that they would be freely available.
It has imposed a temporary travel ban
on all passengers from South Korea,
Italy and Iran for two weeks.
But funnily enough there is no ban on Chinese arriving from China, the birth place of the Wuhan COVID 19. The total COVID death toll in China as of Friday has risen to 3179. Seven more people died in the last 24 hours of March 14 while eight new cases were detected by the authorities, bringing the total number of confirmed cases close to 80,813. These are the official figures released by China’s National Health Commission in its Friday update.
According to Health Services Director General Dr. Anil Jasinghe, the reason why the Chinese returning from China have free entry, while Lankans retuning from Europe, South Korea and Iran are subjected to automatic quarantine on arrival for fourteen days, is because the Chinese death rate due to the virus has been steadily dropping as have been the number of suspected cases. For instance on Friday, he says, to justify his dubious decision there ‘ were only 23 reported cases in China’.
Last month, in the third week of February, speaking to the Daily Mirror Dr. Jasinghe said, ‘The mortality rate of China’s CoVid-19 epidemic is or below 2 percent from those who contacted the virus, which is low compared to the SARS epidemic which had a reported mortality rate of 10 percent.’
That maybe so according to sterile statics but what does the actual death toll reveal: The 2002- 3 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, which also began in China, killed 774 people worldwide and affected approximately 8000 people mainly in China, though a few cases were reported in 26 countries. The COVID epidemic, which Jasinghe said is much less exacting with a mortality rate lower than SARS, is, according to World Health Organisation update as of 12 March
Globally 125,048 confirmed (6729 new)
4613 deaths (321 new)
China 80,981 confirmed (26 new) 3173 deaths (11 new) Furthermore, paying a glowing tribute to China’s masterly handling of the COVID crisis, Dr. Jasinghe said in his February interview with the Daily Mirror: ‘ We must give credit to China that they contained the virus within China as much as possible which paved the way for this disease not to spread all over the world.’
‘ Credit to China for containing it spread all over the world?’
As the WHO latest update has it
Outside of China 44,067 confirmed (6703 new), 1,440 deaths (310 new), 117 countries affected with French Polynesia, Turkey, Honduras and Côte d’Ivoire joining the COVID Club. Thus when the Director General of Health says that Chinese arrivals in Lanka are not subject to automatic quarantine like the natives are, because the reported cases have dropped to 23 on Friday and pose no threat, he should have a quick glance at the WHO countries’ COVID risk assessment rankings. WHO lists China risk assessment as Very High.
Or is high risk China granted special ‘favoured’ status, the nation’s heath compromised by diplomatic and economic necessities? In the same manner the US have allowed flights from Britain to land on American tarmac’.
This Wednesday, March 11, the bubble burst. Lankans awoke to find the ‘coronavirus’ had landed. Landed on the isle shores of this thrice blessed land. With the moat crossed, the fort walls scaled and the citadel stormed and the throne room broken into, the COVID invasion to take the first few steps to root firmly on Lankan soil and lay a siege of fear on the landscape has now been successfully accomplished.