What happened, Sri Lanka?

We were praised by a few health websites over our Coronavirus response, but that was March when we had a couple of cases. Now it is end of April and we are at, 649 cases! Something went wrong didn't it.

I was doubtful that we could contain the virus, knowing some of our people's attitude towards events like this. But I thought, hey we might be able to get through this, but nop, we are seeing the exponential growth of cases.

Who should be blamed?

With painstakingly long curfew periods, where people are itching to get back on to the streets, cleaning and strong disciplinary measures by the police, it is hard to ponder how cases keep increasing.

When we look at countries like South Korea, which now reports a mere 3-5 cases a day, who did not even impose a lock-down but only social distancing rules were adhered to. Why does it look like the country that is taking all preventive measures seems to be losing and the country that doesn't winning.

These questions have mixed answers, some may blame government, but the government has done everything possible from providing tests, giving great quarantine facilities and so on.

But really it should be blamed on the people who have a superficial stance on the virus. People don't wear mask when they go out (we are not talking about not wearing the mask when you are checking out the truck that entered your lane) we are talking about people who gather around outsiders and not have an mask. You might here them say "we do not need the mask, this coronavirus won't infect us," they say in Sinhala.

These people then who may have the infection run around everywhere and spread the virus.

In conclusion

We can't blame the government that has done quite a great job in controlling the pandemic, but some persons that are acting in a ridiculous manner to the seriousness of this virus.