The past two years have been rather difficult for practically all countries and Sri Lanka is no exception. Starting from March 2020, Covid ravaged the world, killing 5.4 million people and infecting 286 million. There have been many warnings that a pandemic could strike the world at any moment due to our fast-paced lifestyles and total disregard for the natural world. Yet, these calls went unheeded, until the Covid pandemic engulfed an unsuspecting world.
Almost 20 months later, at the very beginning of 2022, the world is no closer to eradicating the Covid scourge. Apart from the original Alpha variant of the Coronavirus, several new variants such as Delta and Omicron have emerged, complicating efforts to battle the virus. The only difference from March 2020 is that there are several effective Covid vaccines on the market. These have helped reduce hospitalisations and deaths to a great extent. Most countries including Sri Lanka are giving booster (third) doses to their populations to boost their immunity against the existing and new variants. Given that many countries are again seeing a spike of Covid cases, the booster dose campaign has become an essential strategy to contain the pandemic.
Sri Lanka’s vaccination campaign has been spectacularly successful, with the caveat that many youth showed a reluctance to get the second shot and now, the booster shot due to misinformation via social media. This factor can complicate efforts to rid the country of Covid-19 in the New Year. The health sector must strive to counter such misinformation this year and give the correct picture about the vaccines via the mainstream media and social media. No, the vaccines do not alter one’s DNA or cause infertility. There are minor side effects such as fever, but this only indicates that the vaccine is working.
Given that further lockdowns have been mostly ruled out, there are only two ways in which the country can see off Covid this year. First, the people have to strictly observe the stipulated “new normal” health guidelines such as frequently washing hands, wearing face masks and keeping the distance from the next person. Second, all have to get inoculated against the disease. Some countries have already made vaccination compulsory. Though we have not gone down that path yet, producing the vaccination card will be necessary to enter public places from now on, which will hopefully encourage those sitting on the fence to get the shot.
While everything else depends to a great extent on resolving the Covid issue, the country cannot stay stagnant in the meantime. It is, therefore, encouraging to note that the Government intends to restore full normality to the country in 2022 as Covid wanes. All public servants will have to report to work in person from tomorrow, ending the Work From Home (WFH) system. However, there are many benefits of the WFH system that may come in useful in the future regardless of whether there is a pandemic or not. It must be considered as a backup mechanism in emergency situations.
Many educationists have said that schools should not be closed again for whatever reason. Schoolchildren have missed almost two years of schooling and even though online lessons mitigated some of the damage, not all students had access to those either due to lack of devices or 4G signals. However, online lessons can never replicate the school experience – friends, play and live, in-person lessons. Besides, there are other factors such as discipline that only a school environment can provide. But the Government should expedite the vaccination of school students to afford them protection from the virus. Apart from offices and schools, almost all other sectors are back on track with exceptions such as tourism that are still picking up the pieces.
Here too, there is cause for optimism as nearly 160,000 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in 2021, even with the restrictions in place. Of this number, nearly 70,000 visited in December alone, with neighbouring India leading the arrivals figures. This is an encouraging sign and also an answer to the foreign exchange crunch, as tourism accounted for an annual income of nearly US$ 5 billion. With more airlines commencing flights to Colombo, the industry can only climb higher from here.
There are two other main solutions for the foreign exchange crisis – remittances from Sri Lankan expatriates and export proceedings. Expat remittances, which used to be around US$ 7 billion a year took a hit during the pandemic as most expatriates lost their jobs and had to come back home. The good news is that around 100,000 Sri Lankans have left for foreign jobs again during 2021 – but they should be encouraged to remit funds via official banking and money transfer channels, lest the country lose the benefit of their hard work abroad. Likewise, exports are on a roll again. Sri Lanka’s exports hit a new monthly high in November 2021 generating US$ 1,215 million up 55.11 percent from a pandemic-hit year topping the previous high in October. This trend should hopefully continue to give a further fillip to our foreign exchange reserves which now stand at US$ 3.1 billion.
There is hardly any doubt that 2022 is going to be a very challenging year for Sri Lanka in many aspects, including Covid control and economic management. The economy has taken a battering from Covid and reviving it should receive top billing. But Sri Lanka has been in even worse situations before and emerged unscathed. That same spirit should prevail this year and all forces shall be marshalled for emerging from the present predicament and forging ahead boldly.