Columns

As the country grappled with a dangerous “third wave” of COVID-19, the Government was forced to defend itself in Parliament amid Opposition charges that it had botched the response to the pandemic.

Underlying the situation’s seriousness, all doors leading to the Parliament Chamber were left open for the first time in its history during a debate on Tuesday as the Opposition moved an adjournment motion on the “Prevailing Situation in the Country.” The decision to leave the doors open was taken to ensure that the air-conditioned Chamber received as much ventilation as possible to minimise the risk of COVID-19 spreading inside. By Wednesday, even the side doors leading to the Chamber were open during the debate.

Moving the adjournment motion for the Opposition, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Kalutara District Parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne said the Government’s failure to understand the difference between a war waged against a terrorist organisation and an unseen virus hd placed the country in a dire situation. “When fighting a virus of this nature, one must be extremely careful and subtle, but the State sponsored mythical cures had put the public in more difficulty.”

He pointed out that local scientists researching COVID-19 had clearly warned the Government on April 8 that a new variant of the virus had been identified in the country and had stressed on the need to take urgent counter measures. Not only did the political establishment ignore medical advice, it also took over the mechanism to control the pandemic, he claimed adding that “people are now paying for these follies with their lives.”

SJB Colombo District MP S.M. Marikkar questioned what the Government had done with more than a billion rupees collected for the dedicated COVID Fund coming under the purview of the Presidential Secretariat.

“From what we have seen from media reports, more than Rs 1000 million had been deposited in the COVID-19 fund, but neither Parliament nor the public have been informed of how these funds were utilised. Was the money used to buy vaccines or medicines or to set up hospitals for COVID patients?” he asked.

Mr Marikkar also said the Government was short of some 600,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID vaccine to administer the second dose to those who had received their first. The shortage was due to the Government vaccinating more than 950,000 people and keeping just over 250,000 doses for the second jab. “ Now the Government is trying to give another vaccine as the second dose. This could put lives in danger,” he said.

Ports and Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena rejected the idea of going for another countrywide lockdown to control the situation. “Show us one country where COVID cases weren’t reported even after coming out of a countrywide lockdown. We tried the same thing last year.”

State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara, meanwhile, noted that a complete lockdown would leave some of the poorest segments in the country helpless. “We have about 1.4 million three-wheeler drivers. There are 600,000-800,000 ticket sellers and about 3 to 4 million daily paid labourers who earn between Rs 1000 and Rs 1500. Who will look after them if we go for a lockdown? We tried paying Rs 5000 allowance for them earlier but we have to calculate the cost. The Treasury had to provide Rs 212 million to pay the Rs 5000 allowance last week to people in some Kurunegala district areas that are under lockdown.”

The country was currently undergoing a “Corona Tragedy,” said Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa. He recalled that it was he who first brought to the Government and Parliament’s notice the unfolding pandemic in January and February last year before any COVID patients were detected in the country. “We asked that the Government distribute face masks to the public. The Government’s response was that it did not believe it was necessary for the public to wear masks.”

The Opposition Leader accused the Government of reducing the number of daily PCR tests to create “an artificial self-confidence” that it had defeated COVID before going for a parliamentary election. “They came guaranteeing security, but in the end, the entire country has become insecure,” he noted.

“While this Government was busy promoting clay pots and peniyas (concoctions), other countries busied themselves ordering vaccines due to fears that there will be a vaccine shortage,” Mr Premadasa said.

Also blaming the Government’s alleged inaction was the National People Power frontliner Vijitha Herath. He said: “The Government disregarded the advice of health professionals and acted arbitrarily to bring in Ukranian tourists just as the first wave was subsiding, leading to the second wave. Even now, the Government keeps allowing tourists from India to come to our country, though everyone knows what the situation in India is like.”

Responding to these charges, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said the Government, while adopting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVID guidelines, must also ensure that the country’s economy remains strong. “That will enable us to buy whatever is needed to defeat COVID. We conduct a minimum of 25,000 PCR tests a day. One test costs Rs 1,700. We spend Rs 4.4 million on PCR tests alone every day,” she told Parliament.

Explaining the Government’s preparedness to face any emergency situation, she said: “We have 13,800 beds allocated for COVID patients in hospitals. We are working to add a further 10,000 beds within the next two weeks. Our hospitals currently require an oxygen capacity of 25 tonnes, but we have the capability to increase that capacity to 80 tonnes. We currently have 24,000 normal and 4000 jumbo oxygen cylinders in our hospitals. We have also ordered 7000 more oxygen jumbo cylinders. We are due to get 400 of these next week.

“We have allocated 104 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds for COVID patients. A further 64 High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds have also been allocated to COVID patients. At present, there are critical patients in 58 ICU beds. We have made preparations to allocate a further 138 ICU and 56 HDU beds for COVID patients if the need arises.”

Covid-control State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle denied that the Government had reduced the number of daily PCR tests to make it seem numbers were down. “When the number of patients reduces, it inevitably means the number of close contacts also reduces. We continued random PCR testing. Hospitals also did not stop the PCR tests done for those being admitted to have surgery and other admissions. The PCR test positivity rate had reduced in these cases as well.”

She also said the Government had no reason to hide the reality that the country was having a shortage of 600,000 AstraZeneca doses. “This is not the Government’s fault. The suppliers have been unable to meet the demand for vaccines due to the sheer scale of the pandemic. We are also taking steps to bring down Sputnik and Pfizer vaccines. Research is currently being conducted on using a different vaccine as the second dose. We will have to wait for the results of the research, but if it proves successful, we may end up giving people a cocktail of vaccines,” she revealed.

Indigenous Medicine Promotion State Minister Sisira Jayakody urged the Government to allow the Ayruvedic sector to treat COVID patients. “We have 118 ayurvedic hospitals and 5,072 hospital beds in total. We have 1,022 degree qualified ayurvedic physicians serving in our hospitals while 1,274 trained community physicians are also attached to this sector,” he noted.

Tamil National Alliance frontliner M.A. Sumanthiran pointed out that instead of passing new legislation through Parliament, the Government was using two archaic laws that were 100 to 150 years old to control the pandemic. In contrast, many countries have passed emergency legislation to deal with the new threat.

“There doesn’t seem any urgency in doing what this House ought to do. There are other Bills such as the Port City Bill which are being brought post-haste, but something that this House should have done has not been done even to-date,” said Mr Sumanthiran, pointing out that in the end, he had to present a Private Member’s Bill on the subject to Parliament last year, which has now been forwarded to the Health Ministry for consideration.

Responding to opposition allegations, Pharmaceutical Production State Minister Channa Jayasumana admitted that Sri Jayewardenepura University researchers informed the Government on April 8 that samples taken from five Covid-positive construction workers from a Boralesgamuwa construction site were showing a covid virus variant not seen before in this country.

“In medical terms, they informed us that there was an S-Gene dropout of the virus. There are three variants of the virus so far identified that contain this anomaly. One is the UK variant first identified in Kent. It is false to say the Government took no measures afterwards. We used intelligence agencies to identify 800 contacts of these individuals and tested them all. None of them came back positive for COVID-19,” he stated, adding that it was wrong to say the Government ignored the issue.

The Government’s target was to vaccinate 13.5 million of the population, Prof. Jayasumana noted, adding that it hoped to fully vaccinate 10.3 million people by December 31. “We have placed our faith primarily on the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. We expect 13 million doses of the vaccine by December and hope to fully vaccinate 6.5 million people using that. This is half of the population we hope to vaccinate for the virus,” he said.

Parliament will reconvene on May 18. The Speaker is expected to present before the House the Supreme Court determination on the controversial Port City Bill.