3,500: A grim milestone

This week the number of people in Sri Lanka who have died from COVID-19 surpassed 3,500.

Reaching the 3,500 milestone in such a short time frame is a sobering development and a devastating reminder of the toll this pandemic is taking all over the world and on our nation. It is also an infuriating reminder of the Government’s gross mismanagement of the pandemic and its failure to put public health and the lives of citizens at the front and centre of its agenda when the world is being ravaged by a deadly disease.

The Government believes it is flattening the curve of infections. In a Goebbelsian way, ministers and officials are communicating this falsehood to the people.

The fatalities tell a completely different story.

It took Sri Lanka one year and two months into the COVID-19 pandemic to reach the 1,000 deaths milestone on 19 May, 2021. It took less than a month for fatalities to double to 2,000 by 11 June. Seven days later, on 18 June, 2,500 people had died from the disease. By 30 June, Sri Lanka recorded 3,000 Covid-19 deaths, meaning that less than six weeks after the country marked 1,000 deaths, fatalities had tripled. Ten days since, 500 more people have died. With the Government’s latest decision to allow all those who pass away at home to be buried without testing for COVID-19, the true death rate could be much higher.

There is no sugar-coating it. Sri Lanka is in the throes of a devastating third wave of the disease that has claimed more lives than it should. Many of these lives could have been saved if the Government had acted responsibly, with forethought and wisdom. To date, the only official truthfully communicating the severity of the problem is State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle. Last week, Minister Fernandopulle warned that 10 weeks from now, if the spread of infection is not contained, Sri Lanka will be confronting tragedy and death.

The Government’s response to this escalating situation is befuddling. Travel restrictions have been relaxed apart from a ban on inter-provincial travel which remains largely unenforced. Rather than ramping up COVID-19 testing, the Government has banned PCR testing at private medical facilities and slashed its own test numbers. No PCR testing will be conducted on persons who die at home. This means members of the household could be infected with the disease and unknowingly spread it in their communities. Demonstrations and public gatherings have been banned indefinitely, and all those engaging in protest against Government policies are being manhandled and thrown in jail. But State functions and events continue apace. When Minister Basil Rajapaksa entered Parliament last week, SLPP supporters gathered to celebrate all over the country and faced no consequences. The country remains open to tourists despite deadly mutations of COVID-19 being discovered in several countries including our giant neighbour India. Hospitals around the island are at capacity, frontline workers are overworked and overextended, but the news media remains mum about the crisis unfolding inside healthcare facilities that are overwhelmed with patients suffering respiratory complications from COVID-19. After a terrible start, the vaccination drive is picking up pace and efficiency, but so far, in the virus vs. vaccine race, the disease is still winning.

The loss of 3,500 lives would have had an Opposition led by the SLPP in uproar daily. The present Opposition has made no effort to champion the cause of those who have senselessly lost their lives to the pandemic because of the Government’s colossal failures. With the two broadcasting giants firmly aligned with the Government, the climbing fatalities go largely unremarked upon, which has permitted the ruling administration to lull the people into a false sense of complacency.

Faced with the most consequential, existential crisis of our lifetimes, a regime that was built on a public relations and marketing exercise has tried to govern in poetry. It has prioritised propaganda over public health management and effective policy-making, to tackle a global health crisis that found its way to our island shores. It continues to ‘cook the books’ on COVID-19 statistics, in the vain hope that its propaganda drive will outsmart and outpace the virus. The tactic is failing on an epic scale. 3,500 Sri Lankan lives have already been lost to the disease. How many more will perish before the Government puts its self-serving propaganda efforts aside and starts focusing on saving lives instead?