Taking on the new normal

Sri Lanka will embark on the slow road to the new normal from today. After one and a half months under curfew, the workforce of the country will be stepping into an entirely different set of circumstances than what they were familiar with before 20 March. It is truly incredible that so much has changed in such a short period of time but now comes the hardest part of the adjustment. 

Firstly, many public and private sector stakeholders have rostered their staff and with the economy struggling salary cuts and layoffs cannot be prevented. Even though the Government has made a request appealing to safeguard as many jobs as possible the reality is that companies will have to make hard decisions. In such instances it is important that they are made in a transparent manner, in accordance with labour laws and wherever possible workers are given first priority when the economy improves. Employees also need to be given a living wage and companies have to own up to causes other than COVID-19 that may be causing financial difficulties in their respective businesses and fix those so recovery can be faster. 

The workers themselves will have to follow exhaustive new guidelines and regulations. Stepping out of the safety of one’s home, protecting colleagues and returning to loved ones is now the main order of each day. What was once routine needs fresh levels of thinking. Using a lift, placement of a handbag, sharing of laptops and other equipment and safely disposing of all the masks, wet wipes, hand sanitiser, as well as dozens of other small details need to be carefully thought out.  

Experts have warned the process of returning to ‘normalcy’ will not be smooth or straight forward. Sri Lanka is still seeing about 20 fresh cases of COVID-19 identification each day, though the new patients, the authorities have assured, stem from either the Welisara Navy Camp cluster or people already moved to quarantine centres. In terms of numbers there is a similarity to where Sri Lanka was in mid-March at the point where curfew was imposed but the crucial difference is that the positive cases are coming from already-isolated people and the country has managed to ramp up testing capacity many times over from what it was in March. Health authorities have also managed to cure and discharge over 240 people, which is reassuring.  

On Saturday the Health Ministry said it was nearing 1,500 PCR tests and has assured this can be increased to 3,000 tests per day once the new lab being built with Asian Development Bank (ADB) funding kicks in. Experts have opined that this could be sufficient testing capacity for Sri Lanka in the near term but there are niggling concerns about the accuracy of the PCR tests done by some labs, particularly the Jayewardenepura University and these issues will need to be addressed moving forward so the public trust in the healthcare system remains strong. 

In addition reports of insensitive, uncaring and arrogant behaviour directed towards the Muslim community with regards to identification of COVID-19 patients and carrying out of last rites needs to be addressed urgently. The virus is a long term challenge and accountability is an essential part of due process. Without greater empathy and understanding the virus will do more harm than infect citizens