COVID encounters at the Battle of the Blues
SUNDAY PUNCH SPOTLIGHT ON INSTANCES OF CRASS IRRESPOSIBILTY THAT PUT PUBLIC HEATH AT RISK
Sunday, March 22, 2020Notwithstanding the discovery of the first Lankan testing positive for the coronavirus on Lankan soil on March 10 and in spite of reports of another victim the following day, signalling that the COVID had landed and the invasion had begun in full swing, thousands embarked on a three-day binge of cricketing revelry last Thursday; and blithely attended the 141st encounter of the Battle of the Blues, braving closed encounters with the corona kind to keep traditions alive, without giving a bat’s ass for the deadly fallout that may well envelope an entire society and embrace it with the kiss of death.
Both schools, Royal and S. Thomas, along with all schools in the island, had been closed by Government order to stem the proliferation of the COVID contagion but, funnily enough,
both Royalists and Thomians, young and old, near and far were allowed to gather en masse on one common ground at Colombo’s SSC for three consecutive days to see the willow swung and a toast drunk and to make merry in wild abandon, while the rest of the country were being warned to practise social distancing or face the threat of isolation in makeshift quarantine camps to curb the virus spreading far and wide due to social mixing; or face a lockdown or, worse, a curfew.During the big match week, Lankans returning from specified European countries were being quarantined in Batticaloa, airlines had been informed to stop bringing in passengers from Italy, South Korea and Iran, issuances of visas to Europeans had been suspended, universities had been shut down and it had also been decided to restrict large gatherings of people as well as events, even at religious places of worship which moved the Bishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, to cancel Sunday mass till further notice.
But though the Government warning that the country faced a health epidemic of a magnitude it had never experienced before had been writ large, the authorities of both schools chose to look askance. Not even when the grim message was spelt out in a language they, perhaps, understood better — that the crisis warranted even the cancellation of the England cricket tour of Lanka — they still remained intransigent and refused to change their minds and place the nation’s precious health above the rich spoils of the Blues’ battle.
No wonder President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was peeved when he learnt the match had been held in spite of his presidential request to postpone it, considering the risk of the virus spreading near and far after such a mass congregation of Bacchus worshippers, with social mixing being the event’s theme.
How many would come in to the ground with the coronavirus plastered invisibly on their hands and lips and how many more would leave the field carrying the COVID as souvenirs to be distributed to family and friends gratis, none, last week, could foretell for sure but could point out for certain that the risk was real and immense.
On Tuesday, addressing the COVID Task Force at the Presidential Secretariat which was nationally televised, a visibly annoyed President Rajapaksa spoke of how he had requested that the Royal-Thomian big match be cancelled, but his call had been ignored.
The President said: “They wanted to play the Royal-Thomian and I said don’t play, stop it. But they insisted that they wanted to go ahead with the match and they played the match. The result was a virus infected First Officer of SriLankan Airlines attending the cricket encounter. Today, some of the SriLankan Airlines staff members have been asked to undergo the self-quarantine process.”
Pity, the President did not put his foot down and stop it. Today as a result, not only have some of the SriLankan Airlines staff members been asked to undergo the self-quarantine process but hundreds more Thomians and Royalists have gone into self-imposed solitary exile to prevent infecting their own family members and most probably are ruing the day they went for the match.
And that’s not all. The Turf Club Committee who are organizers of the Turf Club Tent at which the victim was present at the Royal-Thomian match, have said that they have informed all persons who were present in the tent, to self-quarantine for 14 days immediately.
While the infected flight officer is reported to be in a stable condition at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Angoda, Health Ministry officials are currently contacting all members who were present in the tent at the match, and inquiring after their health and informing them over the telephone to undergo quarantine immediately.
Some top executives of companies and banks have been asked by their bosses to ‘work from home’ and not set foot on company premises. Some more are been hunted by the police after having been identified as those who came into close contact with the COVID Srilankan First Officer.
And all of them, all who attended the match which the coronavirus graced with its deadly presence, will sweat out, whether in self-imposed quarantine or no, the 14-day incubation period, dreading whether the mark of COVID has already been branded on their selves upon leaving the SSC gates as solid evidence of their attendance at the match.
One of them who will be counting the days of the 14-day incubation period which will end next Sunday will, no doubt, be Old Royalist Ranil Wickremesinghe who ignored all government warnings of the danger of mass social mixing and, flinging caution to the winds, flirted the coronavirus risk to keep with tradition, even if it meant being martyred on Royal-Thomian stumps.
It’s a tradition he had kept whether he was in the opposition or in power as the nation’s Prime Minister: to arrive at around tea time on the last day of the match, even as his uncle J. R. Jayewardene had done during his time.
But was it wise, this time? Was it prudent for him to have kept true to this tradition this time when the entire nation was in danger of being engulfed by the coronavirus and the government was repeatedly warning that attendance at mass events was to be avoided like the plague at all costs to minimise its virulent spread?
Did his attendance send the wrong message to the masses to treat with a pinch of salt the government’s corona warnings? For if such high ups could flagrantly disregard such warnings, why should the common man stay cowed down at home in fear of the corona scaremongering?
Ranil Wickremesinghe is the leader of Lanka’s main opposition party, the UNP. Just four months ago he ended serving the nation for a record breaking fifth term as Prime Minister and, no doubt, intends to be Prime Minister for the sixth time should his party win the forthcoming elections when it is finally held. By all means, he is a national leader expected by the people to show the lead, especially when the nation is in crisis, not the captain of the Royalists’ cheer squad.
So what nostalgic longings to re-live his lost schoolboy days made him toss all cares away and attend the annual match and wave his blue yellow and blue when, instead, he should have been outside the ground’s gates and, in statesman manner, waving the red flag and warning those barging in that, given the COVID 19 threat this year, to return home and watch the match, ball by ball, on live television, as only fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
What on earth made him take leave of his senses and mingle with the crowd at his regular tent and then saunter off to the pavilion a few blocks away and there climb up the steps to the upper floor to say a brief hello to the former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa who had also turned up at the match to watch the cricket?
On March 15, Ranil Wickremesinghe, on the day he attended the match, urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to call leaders of all political parties and other relevant stakeholders for a meeting to come up with a plan to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and mitigate rising social-economic problems.
Then on March 17, four days after mingling with crowds at the big match and keeping a secret tryst with the corona risk, he said in a televised speech, “We have to consider the available medical facilities in Sri Lanka when faced with the corona crisis. For instance, in Italy there are 25 ICU beds for every 200,000 people, in Lanka there is only 1 ICU bed for every 200,000 people. There is a serious shortage of ventilators because of this if the coronavirus spreads we face an enormous crisis.
Easter Sunday, Ramadan and the Sinhala and Hindu New Year will be upon us soon, so will the General Election, so the risk of the virus spreading is even more. We must immediately have a plan to prevent the spread of this virus. We request the government to pay full attention to prevent the spread of this virus. I ask you the public to extend all support to prevent the spread of this virus. I also appeal to you to think of your personal safety and to follow the safety guidelines given.”
Pity, isn’t it, that he warned the government of the enormity of the crisis if the virus were to spread and then played truant by not heeding own advice and rashly put himself and others at risk by participating in the match revelry? Pity, also, isn’t it that four days later, after flouting government warnings already in place last week, he had to repeat his own sermons of social mixing after sinning himself?
By his rash and reprehensible conduct on March 14 followed, nevertheless, by his exemplary speech two days later, Ranil Wickremesinghe has unambiguously shown the effortless way in which politicians can preach with a straight face on Wednesday the exact opposite of what they brazenly practiced on Saturday.
