Sri Lanka was on a lockdown to control the Covid-19 pandemic and the curfew was imposed on March 21 under the Quarantine and Prevention ordinance of 1897.
Lockdown has many objectives
* For the Government to organise pandemic control measures.
* Creating social distancing and restricting mobility of the people to control the spread of the decease.
* Enable intelligence agencies to track people who need to be quarantined in pandemic spread clusters.
* Utilise state resources for quarantine facilities and treatment facilities.
* Concentrate efforts in the pandemic control measures.
* Strategy of communicating the seriousness of the pandemic and mentally prepare people of all levels to face the consequences.
Job done
The Government has put together its efforts in containing the pandemic. Although there are few misses in the planning process which barred the full credit due to the Covid-19 Task Force, it has been a commendable coordinated effort.
The task force, set up by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was headed by Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva, and comprised the President’s office, the military establishment, MOH doctors and PHIs, Directorate of Health Services and other support establishments. The GMOA also played a pivotal role.
They used the Security Forces in setting up quarantine centres, providing security to the quarantined areas, tracking the infected people of the found clusters using military intelligence units and enforcing curfew effectively. The Government gained the support of the doctors and other medical personnel in the management of the patients in the medical facilities.
By early May, before the Government allowed the gradual restoration of normalcy in the public life, starting from May11, they had curbed 27 out of 31 Covid-19 clusters. There has been no reported new cluster in the country other than the ones created by the arrival of people from several countries.
Next phase
The Ministry of Health issued a document titled “Advocacy Brief” on May 27 setting out guidelines to the resumption of public activities during gradual exit from restrictions due to Covid-19.
Their approach has been more of prescriptive based. Some proposed measures are not practical. As it seems, most of the proposed measures have been copied from the post lockdown implementation plans of China and several other countries. It should have been better that the recovery strategy has been country specific and derived through our own analysis of the overall country situation and experiences gathered.
Plight of the people
Due to the lockdown, good percentage of people who worked in the industries and other commercial establishments might not have got their full salaries for the past two months. Some companies might have paid part of the salary and some companies that were in a poor financial situation after the drawbacks of the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21 last year, may not have paid any salary. Those who worked in the private establishments on daily wages and who worked as casual workers shouldn’t have got any wages at all.
The situation of those who depended on their small businesses and vendors should be the same. Everybody poses the question “who are going to feed the families of these bread winners when the bread is not on the table”. Does our country have social security funds to make such people live in such desperate situations? The Government can do very little, then where will these people find their food to survive?
It is the responsibility of the Government to bring back normalcy as early as possible. For that, those who are in the responsible positions need to think out of the box to bring out a strategic solution which can be practical and realistic than relying purely on prescriptive measures which are conservative and safe for the decision makers.
These prescriptive measures are aiming at putting the burden of responsibility more on the people. Why don’t we look for a strategic solution as an alternative to adopting a prescriptive solution? Ours is a country which became famous by ending a 30-year war against terrorism. Such achievements were possible only through a meticulously planned military strategy.
During the war against terrorism, all four forces had medical doctors who treated the injured soldiers on the battlefield. Services of these doctors have always been remembered and appreciated.
However, when the battles were planned, it was not the Medical Services Corp that made the battle plans. The Medical Services Corp should have been part of the strategy formulation team to seek their views on how the injured soldiers would be transferred for treatment and what measures should be taken to minimise the death and disablement of those who would be at risk during the battle. Similarly, the post lockdown strategies to contain the pandemic should be planned by multidisciplinary teams, comprising those involved in controlling the pandemic during past two months, other external sources and strategic experts who can bring in new ideas in the strategy formulation.
Advocacy brief
* Gather all data relating to Covid-19 clusters.
* Do a SWOT analysis. Critically analyse where they went wrong during the past two months.
* Identify different demographic segments which have contributed to generating the Covid-19 clusters.
* Brainstorm to identify any other vulnerable and probable demographic segments which can generate Covid-19 clusters.
* Target identified segments in future control of the pandemic.
* Draw up a plan to cover identified segments and focus more attention on the ways of containing the spread through these segments or social groups.
* Classify the demographic segments based on their risk levels and focus more on highrisk groups.
* Draw up a communication plan targeting and positioning the selected strategy in key segments.
* Draw up a future patient detection plan and a spread prevention plan.
Strategy formulation group
* MOH Doctors from the Colombo Municipal Council and other affected areas.
* Military teams that were part of the Covid-19 task force and responsible for infrastructure facilities.
* Military intelligence teams involved in identifying people of the risk clusters.
* Members from military strategy, research and development units of the Army.
* Key doctors of the IDH hospital and Directorate of Health Services headed by Dr. Anil Jasinghe.
* Marketing strategists from the industry and marketing academics from universities.
* Advertising and communication experts
* Retired senior military officers involved in strategic planning during the final stages of the war.
Tasks of different groups
* MOH doctors, the military intelligence team and marketers to analyse the affected clusters and vulnerable groups and separate them into different demographic segments.
* Military and marketing strategists to do the SWOT analysis and prepare a brief of lessons learned.
* MOH doctors and other relevant doctors to categorise risk levels of different demographic segments. Military strategists to plan their strategies together with MOH doctors in the control of contracting the disease and spread in different segments.
* Marketers and communication experts to draw up a communication plan targeting different segments to make them aware of control measures and preventive measures.
* MOH doctors and other relevant doctors to plan together with the military team on how to handle future patients, such as those who come from other countries.