Sri Lanka and the Covid 19 Crisis: Strategies and Future Challenges

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has become a major crisis in 2020. The pandemic has claimed thousands of lives and is spreading a negative economic impact around the global economy. The pandemic has caused a devastating impact on human life in many of the countries without a clear distinction among developed or developing nations. Sri Lanka is facing the heat of the pandemic gradually since January and has taken various measures to combat the situation. The COVID-19 pandemic forwarded a greater challenge to Sri Lanka since the country has faced various disasters in the recent past and question marks remain about the government’s response. The Sri Lankan government response to the current COVID-19 crisis has been largely successful and is ranked among the best responsive countries in the world. This paper discusses Sri Lanka’s strategies in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic and possible future challenges related to the issue.

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TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL, COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE, VOL. 34, SEP., 2020
SRI LANKA AND THE COVID 19 CRISIS:
STRATEGIES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
Asantha Senevirathna*
*Lecturer, Department of Strategic Studies, General Sir John Kotelawala University,
Ratmalana, Sri Lanka, Email: asanthas@kdu.ac.lk
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic has become a major crisis in 2020. The pandemic
has claimed thousands of lives and is spreading a negative economic impact around
the global economy. The pandemic has caused a devastating impact on human life
in many of the countries without a clear distinction among developed or developing
nations. Sri Lanka is facing the heat of the pandemic gradually since January
and has taken various measures to combat the situation. The COVID-19 pandemic
forwarded a greater challenge to Sri Lanka since the country has faced various
disasters in the recent past and question marks remain about the government’s
response. The Sri Lankan government response to the current COVID-19 crisis
has been largely successful and is ranked among the best responsive countries in
the world. This paper discusses Sri Lanka’s strategies in dealing with COVID-19
pandemic and possible future challenges related to the issue.
Keywords: pandemic-COVID-19 crisis-SriLanka - strategies - result - measures -
outcomes - challenges
INTRODUCTION
At present COVID-19 is continuing as a major pandemic that has
infected and killed many people all around the world. Mostly the term
pandemic widely used to describe the diseases that extend over a larger
geographical area. Further, pandemics are mostly characterised by disease
outbreaks that become widespread in the world as a result of the spread
of it from human-to-human infection(Qiu, Rutherford, Mao & Chu 2017).
The impact of the current pandemic is creating challenges for policy
makers around the world including Sri Lanka. There have been several
viral infectious diseases that threaten the world in recent times. But, current
COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a much severe case in nature to those:
Tribhuvan University Journal
Covid-19 Special Issue, Vol. 34: 147-158, September, 2020
Centre for Research, Tribhuvan University,
Kathmandu, Nepal
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3126/tuj.v34i0.31546

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While recent decades have witnessed a series of global public health
challenges brought by widespread viral infections – the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the Ebola virus pandemic
from 2014 to 2016, and the Zika virus epidemic from 2015 to 2016, to
name but a few – none of them are comparable in their geographical reach
and socioeconomic impacts of Covid-19 (Chung, Zu & Chang 2020).
Since its rst reported in China late last year, the virus has spread
to every continent and country except Antarctica. As of 29th May 2019,
the cases are rising daily in Europe, the Americas, and Africa with relative
decrease is shown in many Asian countries.(Health Promotion Bureau
2020). All countries are adopting strategies to slow the spread of the virus
by testing and treating of patients, conducting contact tracing, putting
travel restrictions, quarantining of citizens, and prohibiting large gatherings
such as sporting events, various concerts, and schooling. The pandemic is
moving like a wave one that may yet crash on those least able to cope. The
COVID-19 can be described as much more than a global crisis only related
to health. Many of the world’s large cities are deserted as its inhabitants
are meant to stay indoors, due to the circumstances or by the government
order. Across the globe, most of the shops, restaurants bars,and theatres
are closed. This has created socio-economic problems all over the world.
All over the world, people are losing jobs and their income, with no way
to identify when normality will return. Many countries heavily dependent
on tourism, have empty hotels and deserted beaches(UNDP 2020). Since
early January 2020, the COVID-19 was started having an impact on Sri
Lankan society with the news of rising deaths and cancellation of various
events in countries around the world. Many Sri Lankans living abroad and
were spreading the worsening situation in those countries to fellow Sri
Lankans. The news of the rapid spread of the virus in many countries and its
social-economic impact forwarded a challenge to Sri Lankan authorities to
formulate strategies to face the challenge. Sri Lanka was facing a lockdown
since mid of March 2020 creating various economic and social problems.
The airports, schools and shops were closed creating a loss of jobs and
livelihood for the people around the island. The parliamentary election
that was scheduled to be held on last week of April was postponed due to
the prevailing situation. But, in relative to many countries of the world,
Sri Lanka has been successful in its strategy to contain the spread of the
virus. It is important to identify what was the institutional structure that Sri
Lanka had to face this type of emergency with its strengths and weaknesses.
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This study is focusing on what are the new structural and strategic changes
that the Sri Lankan government undertook with the relevant stakeholders
to face the challenges forwarded by COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the
study discusses the success of Sri Lankan strategies in facing COVID-19
pandemic.
METHODS
This study was a qualitative research that collected data using
secondary sources. The researcher mainly used journal articles, and relevant
websites to collect data for this study. The COVID-19 is an ongoing
pandemic situation around the world including in Sri Lanka and study
only focused on available information till 29th of June 2020. The research
philosophy was based on interpretivism where researcher incorporated his
own viewpoint to available data in presenting ideas.
DISCUSSION PART I: COVID-19 AND SRI LANKA
The rst person with the virus in Sri Lanka was identied on 27th
January 2020. A 43-year-old Chinese woman from the Hubei region in
China who had come to Sri Lanka as a tourist was admitted to the National
Institute of Infection Diseases (IDH) due to suspected patient and was
found positive (Reuters 2020). The proper and specialised treatment of
the patient at the counties main infection disease hospital resulted in her
recovery. Later due to the tourist arrivals and Sri Lankans returning home
mainly from European countries brought the virus into the country. The
rst Sri Lankan national with COVID-19 positive was identied in early
March 2020, a male tour guide who was engaged in handling a group of
tourists from Italy (Perera 2020). Further, a large number of Sri Lankans
living in Italy arriving into the country due to the deteriorating situation
in there tested positive for the virus. The increasing number of COVID-19
patients since March 2020 meant that the country going into a lockdown
situation. In this background,the government took immediate action to
prepare medical facilities in the county to face the situation. Mainly the new
cases that found were people who arrived in the country from abroad and
the people who had immediate contact with those,where mostly the close
family members. According to Health Promotion Bureau (2020), as of 29th
May 2020, Sri Lanka has reported a total of 1530 COVID-19 cases in the
country. Currently, there are 775 active cases while 745 has recovered and
as of now, 10 deaths were reported due to the pandemic. Concerns about
transmission within families and close relatives or contact persons led to

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the imposition of quarantine measures and even two-to three-week-long
curfews in certain areas (Jayasuriya 2020).
At the micro-level, there were many socio-economic implications.
Many people that were engaged in day to day earning has lost their main
income. Further, the restrictions on movement meant that people were facing
difculty in acquiring essential goods and services. In this background, the
government faced a challenge of implementing new strategies to provide
support for maintaining day to day life of the people while preventing the
spread of the virus within the society. In a special situation like this, better
coordination becomes very important. The leadership of government meant
vital among the medical sector, law enforcement, public service,and other
relevant stakeholders under the to face the challenges posed by COVID-19.
DISCUSSION II: SRI LANKA’S STRATEGY IN DEALING WITH
COVID-19
The gradual spreading of COVID-19 virus in the country forwarded
a greater challenge to Sri Lanka as a country due to recent experience
related to Easter Sunday Bombings. In April 2019, the Easter Sunday
bombings claimed more than 250 lives that consisted both Sri Lankans and
foreigners (Selvanayagam 2019).Sri Lanka as a country is still recovering
from that devastating incident. In this background, the new president who
came to power in via newly held election in January 2020 had to nd and
adopt a new strategy to face this new crisis. In recent times, Sri Lanka has
faced various emergencies. The recent disasters were both natural and man-
made. After the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami that occurred in 2004,
the government created a new institution called the Disaster Management
Centre (DMC).The DMC and its functioning in recent disasters were
largely not satisfactory. In this background, the present government had
to decide and create a new structure and strategy to face the challenges
posed by this new COVID-19 pandemic. The new president who came to
power in January 2020 developed a new structure and strategy to face this
new crisis. The president took action to form a National Operation Centre
for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), co-chaired by the
Honourable Minister of Health, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of
the Army,and the Director-General of Health Services (NOCPCO, 2020).
As Vidanage (2020) highlights Sri Lanka’s initial response to this new
COVID-19 pandemic situation has been robust. The president immediately
adopted crucial new strategies and it has come into fruition. The social
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distancing and enforced lockdowns in all over the country largely mitigated
primary infection levels.
The state-level strategy to address the COVID-19 crisis had
three segments. The political leadership, military and other defence
establishments, and health sector and professionals can be identied
as these three segments. The country was facing a general election with
dissolved parliament since 02nd March 2020, the new president Gotabaya
Rajapaksa had to take the lead to provide much needed political support
for the crisis. According to the Sri Lankan constitution, the president holds
a powerful executive position in decision making in the country. In this
background, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was able to give the leadership
to government ministries to carry out their tasks.
The second segment included medical professionals and the health
sector in the country. Sri Lanka is one of the few countries with a well-
developed public health sector among the developing countries of the world.
After the nding of the rst few Sri Lankans with the virus in early March,
the medical professionals urged the government to implement lockdown
measures immediately. The Government Medical Ofcers Association
(GMOA), the main trade union of government medical doctors in the
country, issued a letter addressed to the president asking shutdown all ports
of entry (Airports and Harbours).Further, the GMOA suggested extending
the already prevailing local new year public holidays to cover the entire
week and prevent unnecessary travelling and gathering of people (GMOA
2020). The medical professional’s strong suggestion had an enormous
impact on the political leadership of the country to closedown the port of
entry to the country and implement lockdown measures, as necessary. The
GMOA asked the government to resort to China-type lockdowns of certain
parts of Sri Lanka to curb the spread of COVID-19 (Kuruwita 2020).The
ministry of health and its medical professionals continuously conducted a
media campaign to educate the public on the nature of the COVID-19 and
how to take preventive measures to contain the spread of the virus.
The military establishment in the country represented the third
segment that of the COVID-19 response from Sri Lanka. The current Sri
Lankan acting Chief of Staff of the military and army commander was given
a co-chair position at the NOCPCO in the national strategy implementation
level of facing the pandemic. The military and various related defence
establishments such as police (which is also under the Ministry of Defence)

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undertook rapid actions and measures on preventing. Sri Lankan military
intelligence played a vital role in collecting information and taking action on
the infected people and the people that they had contacts (possible suspects
due to contacts). The military’s response was quick to the suspected people.
The military with the coordination of police and health ofcials reached the
suspected people overnight and took measures to quarantine the people. Sri
Lanka army, navy and air force started 41 quarantine centres all over the
country. The persons who arrived from abroad since 1st of March 2020 and
all the people who were suspected of having a connection to them was either
taken to one of these quarantine centres or asked to self-quarantine at their
homes under strict regulations (Farzan 2020). During the quarantine period,
the military provided food and all necessary facilities to the people and
anyone who was identied as COVID-19 patients were immediately sent to
the hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 treatment in the country. Further, the
military helped the police and other law enforcement agencies to maintain
the lockdown measures all over the country.
The above mention triad was working cooperatively to address the
pandemic and they specially created a mechanism to mobilise the grassroots
level government ofcers to take actions in the smallest governance bodies
in the country. The Grama Niladhari’s (village ofcers) around the countries
were used to collect data and approach people at the local level as of needs.
Further, high-level government ofcials, military and police seek the
assistance of Public Health Inspectors (PHI’s) along with Grama Niladhar
is to reach the suspected persons around the country. The grassroots level
government ofcials were incorporated in local level coordinating meetings
to collect valuable information to analyse the situation.
The government had to incorporate the private sector of the country
into a strategic response. The co-operation of the private sector meant vital
in facing the situation since it plays an important part in the socio-economic
functions of the country. In the initial stage,the government did not allow
the private sector hospitals to test suspected COVID-19 persons or to treat
them. By early April,the government allowed private hospitals to conduct
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on suspected people. However,the
treatment of COVID-19 patient was only conned to specialized government
hospitals. Further, the government permitted selected private supermarket
chains and pharmacies to distribute food and medicine for the needy people
based on online orders. The government regulated the activities of the
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private sector by imposing guidelines given by the medical professionals to
prevent any chance of the spreading of the virus.
RESULTS: MEASURING THE OUTCOME OF THE STRATEGIES
Sri Lanka is considered to be an air and naval hub in the region of
South Asia and closing its port of entry meant a large loss to the country’s
economy. But closing external connection and implementing a lockdown
became a necessity to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus in the country.
According to the report published by the Charted Management Accountants
(CMA) Australia, Sri Lanka was ranked very high among the nations in the
world based on the response to COVID-19 pandemic (CMA 2020). The
GRID Index: Tracking the Global Leadership Response in the COVID-19
Crisis, published by the above authority, ranked Sri Lanka at 9th place in the
world. According to the report, Sri Lanka was the only developing country
in the world which ranked among the top 10 countries. The report largely
considered the good political leadership has been more critical. The report
further highlighted that the countries which had weak political leadership in
the ght against this pandemic as countries all over the world that struggles
to prevent the spread of COVID-19 virus. In times of this sort of crisis,
good leaders rally to nurture and protect their citizens. Great political
leaders with strategic vision go beyond their national boundaries and unite
the world in fostering global partnership and cooperation to work towards
the common good of global citizen (CMA 2020).This report highlights that
the current political leadership of Sri Lanka is comparatively successful in
giving visionary leadership to ght COVID-19 situation in the country.
Sri Lanka has been lauded around the world for providing good
health coverage at a low cost despite having a modest per capita income
(Chapman & Dharmaratne 2019).Sri Lanka’s public health sector and its
workers in different levels played an important role against the COVID-19
virus in the country. It was evident that even some of the developed
countries with very good health facilities have not been able to cope with the
pandemic due to its nature and as a developing country, Sri Lanka’s efforts
show a relative success. Further, 12.4 percent of Sri Lanka’s population
belongs to the elderly population of the country which is highly vulnerable
to COVID-19 virus. In this background, the advice provided by the medical
professionals in the country to government and public was instrumental in
containing the spread of the virus. Sri Lanka with limited resources relative
to the developed countries has performed well (Hewage 2020). Sri Lanka

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is long being recognized as a country that invested more on the health care
system of the country. This strong health system has helped Sri Lanka to
overcome challenges posed by crises in the country:
Health care is considered a basic human right in Sri Lanka, and, reecting
this priority, the government dedicates government tax revenues to ensure
equitable access to all people in the country, regardless of whether they
are a citizen. In particular, Sri Lanka has recognized the inherent market
failures associated with nancing health promotion and prevention
related services, and has therefore prioritized investments in those areas.
(Abeykoon 2019)
The world in general and the people who live in it for their own
betterment is better off if they were to invest more money and resources
with paying attention to the making of Common Goods for Health (CGH).
Focusing on epidemiological surveillance investing in it that facilitates
is important. These investments will provide rapid response to various
infectious outbreaks that certainly is an important segment of a countries
health sector (Savedoff 2019).
The heavy involvement of the military in the ght against
COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka has had a positive impact on the
outcome. A pandemic like COVID-19 requires rapid action. Military as a
well-organised segment of the society has the capacity, capability and the
resources and they are able to run quarantine centres and maintain supply
chains effectively all over the country. The public health sector in Sri Lanka
that worked in close cooperation with the military of the country has shown
positive results (Srinivasan 2020). In this background, the military has
certainly played an important role in containing COVID-19 in the country.
Sri Lanka is facing a lockdown since mid of March 2020 creating
various economic and social problems. The airports, schools and shops
were closed creating a loss of jobs and livelihood for the people around
the island. The parliamentary election that was scheduled to be held on last
week of April was postponed due to the prevailing situation. But, in relative
to many countries of the world, Sri Lanka has been successful in its strategy
to contain the spread of the virus. The present success has resulted in a
well-calculated gradual easing of the lockdown measures in the country.
The government is now engaged in a process of normalizing and rebuilding
the day to day life of the people in the country. Most of the countries in
the world have failed in containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
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However, Sri Lanka relatively successful in containing the virus. But still
due to the nature of the pandemic and the negative economic impact it has
created challenges to the country.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
At present Sri Lanka is not reporting COVID-19 cases from the
society but suspected persons in various quarantine centres. The government
is gradually easing the lockdown measures to support the resumption of
daily livelihood of the people. The government is further considering
gradual reopening of the port of entries to the country targeting of economic
activities. But when we consider the nature of the COVID-19 at any time
the second wave remains a possibility. Sri Lankan government face the
challenge of regaining the export market that had a negative impact due to
COVID-19 and reopening the country for tourism baring a risk. Further, the
government has the challenge of supporting domestic economic activities
by providing incentives to affected entities and people. The region of
South Asia and most of the other parts of the world is still showing a high
number of COVID-19 cases. In this background, travelling from Sri Lanka
and arrivals from those countries certainly create a dangerous situation.
Thousands of Sri Lankan citizens working and living abroad is seeking
permission to come back to the country. The government of Sri Lanka is
now faced with the challenge to bring those citizens back to the country
and most importantly quarantine those people before allowing them to go
to the society. The non-availability of a proper vaccine anywhere in the
world certainly have an impact on normalising life in Sri Lanka. In this
background, the government of Sri Lanka need to continue testing every
person that arrives from abroad under quarantine measure that the country
was already maintaining.
CONCLUSION
COVID-19 pandemic has become a major crisis in the world.
Thousands of people have lost their lives and most of the citizens of the world
are facing a lockdown situation bringing a negative impact on the global
economy and the government of Sri Lanka is adopting various strategies
to contain the spread of the virus. Among the strategies adopted by the
Sri Lankan government to response COVID-19 crisis, it has given priority
to three segments. The political leadership, Military and other defence
establishments, and Health sector and professionals can be identied as these
three segments. The new president of Sri Lanka with the executive powers

156
vested on him is giving the political leadership to the crisis. For a long time,
Sri Lanka is been identied as a country with a high standard public health
care system in the world. The health professionals continuously provide
valuable advice to the government and the public on how to contain the
virus. The long term investments in public health care have beneted Sri
Lanka in facing this COVID-19 crisis compared to many other countries.
The heavy involvement of the military in response to COVID-19 can be seen
as the third segment of governments strategy to face the crisis. The military
is operating many quarantine centres all over the island and its intelligence
has been able to identify suspected people with COVID-19 and guide them
to quarantine. The availability of resources and ability of the military to
respond quickly has beneted the country’s to ght against COVID-19.
Further, the inclusion of grassroots level government ofcials and the
private sector in activities has strengthened the ght against COVID-19.
According to international indicators, Sri Lanka has archived better results
on containing the virus. The country is now gradually lifting its lockdown
measures. But challenges remain considering the nature of COVID-19
since it can come again to the country from outside. The challenge will
remain until a proper vaccine to be found. Further, like any other country in
the world,Sri Lanka is faced with the challenge of revamping its economy.
Long term investments on public health, the effective implementation of
the lockdown measure, effective use of special capabilities of the military,
effective coordination and implementation of activities within government
ofcials from both top and grassroots levels, and Government working
closely with the private sector under special regulations have contributed to
a positive outcome in Sri Lanka’s ght against COVID-19 pandemic that
other countries in the region and elsewhere can share.
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