Unity needed to face long-term COVID-19 impact: RW

• Says COVID-19 has intertwined healthcare and economy
• Reiterates appeal to scale up testing, share WHO report
• Calls for policy strategies to support key sectors, SMEs
• Wants non-partisan distribution of relief
• Warns public will have to buckle in for long-term virus impact

United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, issuing a statement to mark May Day, called for comprehensive solutions on COVID-19 recovery from the Government and a united effort by all Sri Lankans to mitigate the virus impact, which he warned will last for at least a year.     

United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe

Wickremesinghe stressed that policymakers and the public should understand that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be long-term, and that both international and domestic strategies are necessary to navigate evolving socio-economic realities.

“We must protect the working public in this situation, we can only face this challenge if we have a healthy workforce that remains resilient in the face of a collapsing economy,” he stated, pointing out it was the Government’s responsibility to protect the public and private industries, including agriculture, small and medium enterprises, and the self-employed, during this crisis.  

“Due to COVID-19 today the health sector and the economy are intertwined. Internationally, economic growth worldwide has dropped to negative values. The Sri Lankan Government’s revenue is reducing, and foreign currency reserves are falling. This will lead to unemployment and poverty,” Wickremesinghe pointed out.

He repeated his call for the Government to expand PCR testing for the COVID-19 virus to at least 3000 tests per day, and to share related information on progress with the public. He urged the Government to share the advice given by the World Health Organization (WHO), which had delivered a special report to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa recently.

“The information in this report is invaluable, I call on the Government to share the advice within it with the public and provide necessary means for all sectors to follow the advice given by WHO,” he stressed.

The former Prime Minister called on the Government to enact the recommendations made by him, namely, distribution of relief in a nonpartisan manner, and work to protect small to large scale industries which generate employment opportunities. Further, he called on the Government to prepare short-term and long-term strategies to gradually rebuild the economy, taking into consideration the domestic and international challenges that persist. 

Lastly, the UNP leader reminded all working citizens that the impact of COVID-19 will be felt for more than a year and called on them to understand that they may have to work in a challenging environment for some time.