5th Column

My dear Coronavirus,

I thought I must write to you because you must be wondering why we don’t care about you now. Most of us in Paradise seem to have forgotten about you after living in mortal fear of encountering you for over a year. Meanwhile, other countries are still worried about you and take you very seriously.

It is difficult to imagine that you have been with us for so long now – well over a year. In that time, we have gone from dismissing you, to fearing you. Now, we seem to have decided that we will just allow you to run rampant because it is too great a problem to deal with for such a long time.

When you first arrived on our shores, we dealt with you as we do with most things that arrive from China: we think that if it has the ‘Made in China’ label, it can’t be of great quality. So, while the less affluent might get it, the high and mighty and the rich and famous need not bother about it.

That is perhaps why, when it was suggested to Gota maama that the country should be locked down during the initial stages of your arrival when we had only a few cases, he asked incredulously why we should do so when it was not locked down when there was a war raging and thousands more died.

You shouldn’t take offence, Coronavirus. We tried to give you the attention you deserved, so long as it served our purposes too. Who can forget Pavithra posing with our first patient – who also came from China – and then planting a kiss on her forehead? Photo opportunities don’t come any better than that!

You did manage to upset Gota maama’s timetable for general elections though, not just once but twice. Perhaps that was because setting the election date was not up to Gota maama but the Elections Commission. Nevertheless, Gota maama got what he wanted anyway – nearly a two-thirds majority.

To give credit where it is due, Gota maama, after a few hiccups, managed your arrival very well. He respected medical advice. Paradise was in lockdown. Until late last year we had only a few hundred cases. The number of those who fell victim to you could be counted on the fingers of both hands.

That is when someone somewhere thought enough was enough. The lockdown was eased. Some from a garment factory visited India and brought the virus home with them. You invaded the whole country but we were repeatedly told that everyone infected was linked to either Minuwangoda or Peliyagoda!

Instead of alerting the public, the doctors’ trade union, which usually shouts at the slightest hint of a problem, kept silent because that Padeniya chap doesn’t want to offend Gota maama. Ask them even now, and, after nearly a 100,000 cases, they will say there is no ‘community transmission’.

Around this time, Paradise took a step from the sublime to the ridiculous in its fight against you, Coronavirus. Instead of rushing to purchase vaccines, they encouraged a chap called Dhammika to market a ‘peniya’ to fight you – and Pavithra was again happy to taste a gulp in front of the cameras.

The powers-that-be decided that they won’t keep Paradise ‘closed’ because of you. They declared it was ‘business as usual’. That meant the usual suspects were engaging in business. Starting the trend was former fugitive Udayanga who brought in tourists from Ukraine where you had created havoc.

Then there was the quarantine fiasco for those returning from overseas. There were many complaints that, for those who wanted to arrange their own quarantine, they were limited to a ‘mafia’ of hotels, for whom it was more business than usual. There was money to be made, even through you!

The distribution of vaccines – the only tool we have to fight against you – was also another disaster. There was no careful plan to obtain vaccines sufficient for all of us, so we had to beg and borrow a few from India and China. Whether you got one depended on either who you were or who you knew.

Such events and a belief that the worst is over has descended upon us. This time last year, we were in lockdown. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations were limited. This year, no one cared about the threat posed by you and appeared to be trying to compensate for what they missed out last year.

We also wonder whether the correct people are being given the correct tasks, and why doctors are ignored. When a regulatory authority asked questions about the Chinese vaccines, several members were sacked. Shavendra has to monitor you, the armed forces and sports too!

A tragedy of gigantic proportions is unfolding in India, but we haven’t realised that India today, could be us tomorrow. Yet, no one is alarmed by what you can do to us. The measures that are being taken are too little, too late. So, Coronavirus, the stage is now set for you to do as you please in Paradise!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: As I said, when you arrived, we took you lightly because you were ‘Made in China’. Now though, we know you will be like the Chinese in the Port City: You will do what you want, we won’t be able to control you with our regulations, and you will remain with us, creating havoc for a very long time!