In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the spectre of the 1929 Wall Street rout and the ensuing Great Depression of the 1930s has been raised. The failure of the US and the UK to swing into action with a wide range of mitigation measures; despite the lessons of Italy’s slow response to the spread of Covid-19 – has heightened concerns that a sustained, epochal downturn lies in wait.
In the meantime, in Sri Lanka the President and his government has guided the health authorities to swing into action, fully supported by the tri forces and the police with a range of mitigation measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus. The public has been well informed and curfew was imposed in Colombo, Gampaha and Puttalam district to control the spread of the virus.
There are always a small number who do not heed to such warnings, such irresponsible acts cause unnecessary damage to life. One such incident occurred in Jaffna where a religious gathering that has resulted in the government having to impose curfew in the districts of Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Jaffna in the Northern Province.
Accordingly, the residents of these districts have been prohibited to leave their respective districts. The travel ban will continue to be in effect until all those who visited Jaffna to attend the sermon and associated with the COVID-19 infected pastor who had arrived in the island from Switzerland. On his return the pastor is receiving treatment in Switzerland to cure him from COVID-19 Virus.
The Sri Lankan government has been handling the crisis well with responsibility by locking down people in their own homes has called on the people of the five districts to cooperate with these measures as they had been taken to safeguard people in the North from the novel coronavirus.
Northern Breeze 