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A solitary flower placed before the stupa at the deserted Bellanwila Raja Maha Vihara on full moon Poya day Tuesday is a sign of the times as people all over the world stand sentinel to a deadly virus. The country will be under curfew for the upcoming National New Year when people would usually flock [...]
Tax cuts withdrawn; high rates for big income earners
Reversing the tax bonanza announced in January, the Government has reintroduced tax amendments for top earning individuals and companies, in another measure to overcome the economic challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. The about-turn on the tax cuts include a revised tax structure for corporates, the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Tax and the Withholding [...]
Govt. considers district basis relaxation of curfew from April 20
The Government will review the possibility of relaxing curfew hours in selected districts under strict guidelines from April 20 onwards, a senior official said. Health Ministry Secretary Badhrani Jayawardena told the Sunday Times the review would be done in consultation with the COVID-19 Task Force and health officials. She said they would take into consideration [...]
A cry for help from across the seas
Messages from anguished, hungry migrant workers with no jobs, no money, no food and no way home SLBFE says measures to be taken to assist any foreign worker that need support, regardless of legal status “Dear Sir,” the email read. “I am not well. I am so depressed because I haven’t had a proper [...]
Virus fears block passage home for helpless thousands
Thousands stranded in the capital city Colombo are pleading to return to their homes because money and essentials are rapidly evaporating, but officials insist they should stay in place. Vasantha Thushanthan of Aawela, Nuwera Eliya, came to Colombo three years ago to work as a sales representative in a leading ceramic showroom in Colombo but [...]
‘Living’ in Kuala Lumpur airport for 20 days
Jacklin Mariyan Victor went to Australia to visit her sister. On March 19, the 31-year-old from Trincomalee was transiting in Kuala Lumpur on her return to Sri Lanka when that airport shut down. “I have been sleeping in the terminal on chairs with blankets,” she told the Sunday Times via telephone this week. “I have [...]
School reopening further delayed
The reopening of schools in selected districts is likely to be delayed until a decision is taken in the first week of next month, Education Ministry sources said. This was after officials ruled out the possibility of reopening schools on April 20 as previously scheduled. With the outbreak of the coronavirus and the threat of [...]
Superior Courts go electronic for bail applications
The Court of Appeal took up four freshly-filed bail applications on Thursday, and issued notices on the Attorney-General returnable for May 11 in respect of three of these bail applications. Issuing a circular extraordinary, the Court of Appeal President decided to constitute one bench for bail applications and another for urgent matters. He had issued [...]
Developed nations seek anti-Covid clothing from Sri Lanka; but priority for Lanka’s requirements
Some developed nations are canvassing Sri Lankan manufacturers to sell them personal protection equipment (PPE), including the full-body polythene gown, despite Sri Lanka also being desperately short of the gear. The requests—which have also been made to some of Sri Lanka’s missions abroad—come amidst strict controls around the world, including in India, Britain and the [...]
Aggressive testing the way forward, medical specialists tell President
Aggressive testing using the correct method along with several other urgent measures is the way forward for Sri Lanka to crush the COVID-19 enemy, a group of high-level medical specialists has told President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. “The meeting was interactive and transparent and President Rajapaksa and his team of officials gave full ear to us and [...]
Financial assistance for affected businesses taking too long: Trade body
The two main Government initiatives aimed at assisting businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are bogged down in bank formalities and paperwork and risk being redundant, “like administering medicine to a sick man after he has died,” a leading entrepreneur association warned this week. The Central Bank had directed financial institutions, including licensed finance companies, [...]
Is COVID-19 creating a disaster for non-COVID patients?
Serious concerns are being expressed in health circles that due to the major focus on all that is COVID-19 including patients who have contracted it, there may be a rise in the deaths of those affected by non-communicable diseases (NCDs). There have been some instances where patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) have been shuttled here [...]
Covid-19: Good Friday mass goes online
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith conducted the Good Friday service from the All Saints church in Borella without a congregation The service was telecast live on television channels and posted online. The Cardinal is also due to celebrate the Easter Mass in a similar manner and the mass will be telecast live on Sunday morning. Pix by [...]
Deadly virus puts Avurudu in intensive care
Limited public interactions and priority to religious observances will be the highlights of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year this year as the coronavirus continues to spread in the country. The Buddhasasana, Cultural and Religious Affairs Ministry, Secretary, M K Bandula Harischandra urged Sri Lankans to limit interactions only to family members when they observe [...]
Lockdown won’t stop Maligawa rituals for avurudu
The avurudu rituals will be held as usual at the Sri Dalada Maligawa despite the coronavirus lockdown, Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela said. He said the rituals would be held as they had been carried out since the period of King Parkarma Bahu IV (1302-1326 A.C.) of Polonnaruwa . The king laid down the tradition [...]
Second COVID-19 outbreak likely if curfew is ended too soon
Sri Lanka held its breath with hopes that if a cluster of COVID-19 patients does not break-out next week, all the positive steps taken in the country would help flatten the disease curve. Pointing out that the stringent measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka should not be relaxed, [...]
The ‘soldiers’ at the medical front battling COVID-19
The battle against the tiny new coronavirus is being waged by ‘soldiers’ on different fronts. At hospital level, especially in those treating COVID-19, the arms-bearers, nay the stethoscope, thermometer and medicine wielders include the senior doctors, medical officers, nurses and minor staff. The hospitals treating COVID-19 are the Infectious Diseases Hospital (now called the National [...]
Pick of the Pix
Pix by Indika Handuwala, M A Pushpa Kumara, Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe, Karuwalagaswewa Jayasinghe, Shelton Hettiarachchi, Rekha Tharangani, Lahiru Harshana
Public in a quandary over sporadic, sometimes shortages of supplies to households
While the mechanism put in place to deliver essential food items to households has improved over the past two weeks, there are complaints that supply is sporadic in some areas while others are experiencing severe shortages of certain items. The supply is currently maintained mainly by the private sector with the Government acting as a [...]
Colombo in bloom
As the country enters the Sinhala and Tamil New Year under the cloud of the COVID-19 outbreak, Colombo’s streets that would normally be teeming with last minute New Year shoppers are completely deserted. Nature however, is putting on a spectacular show. Flowers of all colours and types are in full bloom everywhere in the city. [...]
Pharmacies complain drug transportation hindered by police
Lack of police support to transport medicinal drugs to pharmacies during the curfew has resulted in the shortage of drugs and people being turned away, the industry complains. In some instances, people have made use of the online facility to order huge amounts of drugs to last for months. This, too, has resulted in a [...]
Few staff to deal with torrent of shop orders
Supermarkets and food stores failed to keep up with customer demands this week despite claiming to have adequate food stocks. Consumers complained that hotline numbers often went unanswered or remained busy for hours, and that on some occasions orders were taken but delivery had not taken place. The situation was echoed in some pharmacies despite [...]
Kapruka refunding clients to tune of Rs 1.5mn
Kapruka, the online shopping portal that courted controversy by overcharging customers amidst the COVID-19 crisis, is refunding clients to the tune of Rs 1.5mn, the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) said. Legal action will also be taken against the company as soon as courts reopen, an official maintained, but no fine has yet been imposed. “That [...]
Panic buying sees CAA raid profiteers
Putting meals on the table is no easy task under continuous curfew, especially in densely-populated districts, as residents desperately seek out supplies online or buy at high prices from mobile vendors or even resort to purchasing dry rations from drug addicts looking for money. The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) said it is taking action to [...]
Farmers ditching hard-won harvest with no point of sale
Vegetable farmers loaded with produce from a bumper harvest lament that they cannot sell the food they took such trouble to grow. As the government kept experimenting with methods of getting the vegetables from farmers to consumers, all Economic Centres – central points for farmers to sell their produce – remained shut from Tuesday for [...]
Lament of the Kalpitiya farmers
Farmers in Kalpitiya, like in most parts of the country say they are unable to sell their produce and were facing great financial hardships. They said vegetables such as cabbage, beetroot, red onion, radish and produce of other intermediate crops cultivated in about 8000 acres are rotting. The farmers added that they cannot even collect [...]
Nature’s vivid show hides misery for temple flower sellers
The tanks in the Rajarata are full of waterlilies and lotuses blooming with colour but there is heartbreak behind the vivid show, an unseen consequence of coronavirus. These flowers are normally picked and collected by people living around religious centres who sell them to devotees who visit the temples and, in centuries-old tradition, wish to [...]