COVID-19 mitigation strategy must be publicised: Omar Khan

Leadership and human behaviour specialist Omar Khan this week urged Sri Lanka must come up with a well-conceived and publicised strategy to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19) which to-date has infected 28 locals and over 100 under quarantine. 

Using the “playbook” of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which have been successful in mitigation and taking the proverbial “wind out of the sails” of the virus, Khan said Sri Lanka should publish a comprehensive game-plan, clearly indicating strategies against various thresholds that may be reached. “If this is done people know what would trigger response ‘x’ or ‘y’ and it would be evidence based, not anecdotal, or even reflexive, or following the herd. And this level of clarity would be both bracing and virtually unprecedented globally, and would give considerable confidence both regionally and beyond,” he added.

“The country has seen host of measures being taken to mitigate but people don’t have a clear idea about what is the broader strategy,” Khan said, adding thankfully the cases so far are mostly involving those who came from abroad and not local-to-local transmitted.

From an international perspective, he said a concerted global response was far better though it is challenging to enforce. COVID-19 has so far killed over 5,800 people and infected over 160,000 in 138 countries and territories.

He said global response depends on strong leadership and will. “The world needs to come up with the best global practices that enables countries to take appropriate measures at different number of case levels or depending on resilience of the medical systems of the country,” he added.

Khan said Sri Lanka can build on learnings from countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong which have managed to mitigate the spread of the disease by acknowledging the challenge unlike China or the US which originally was on a denial mode and forced to take draconian action later on.

Though noting Singapore and Hong Kong and Taiwan were hitherto SARS-trained, Khan said these countries took a host of appropriate early measures such as from where to limit travel instead of blanket ban.  “They have been scrupulous about screening on entry, and  we could add departure screening rigor to it. They had established a good quarantine set-up, were meticulous in tracing the movements of infected people and promoted social distancing., which the populace, from past experience, was hearteningly disciplined in adhering to,” Khan revealed. 

“They weren’t draconian as a default setting but focused on mitigation, “flattening the curve.” They took early action and this paid off. It didn’t mean these countries had to be wholly shut down but business and life went on., guided by prudence and medically advised best practice. They flattened the curve and mitigate it until the rate at which it is proliferating comes down to a point where it cannot just keep regenerating and spreading,” Khan pointed out.

“People ask how long this is going to go on. It depends on how fast and how decisive we undergo the inconvenience to break the back of this disease. Can we be adults for two weeks or a month rather than  rebelling against undergoing any inconvenience? We certainly can learn from the successes of other countries and then adapt that to our own realities and where we are globally as well,” Khan emphasised.