The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to empower Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa to take necessary measures to address the shortage of milk powder in the market.
The decision was reached at the Cabinet meeting held yesterday (09) when the issue of milk powder shortage in the country was brought to the notice of the Minister of Finance. Thereafter the Cabinet decided to hand over the relevant issue to the Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa.
In yet another record daily death toll in Sri Lanka, the government information department confirmed 118 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday (10) evening, hours after a top minister said there will be no lockdown measures imposed.
Total COVID-19 deaths in the island now stand at 5,340.
At the time of writing, 1,992 people were confirmed to have been infected on Tuesday, bringing total cases in Sri Lanka to 326,308.
Update: 2,904 cases confirmed in total on Tuesday.
Despite the devastation, and repeated calls from the health sector to impose tighter restrictions, co-cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Tuesday morning that the government has intention to impose a lockdown at the moment.
“There is no intention (for a shutdown). Curfew will be imposed only and only if it is extremely necessary,” Rambukwella told reporters at the weekly cabinet briefing.
“But we can’t it rule out given the world trend. It will be our last option,” he said.
Army commander and head of the national COVID-19 task force Gen Shavendra Silva said Tuesday afternoon that ongoing inter-provincial travel restrictions will be strictly monitored.
Weddings that were restricted to 150 guests, already seen as excessive by some experts, have been further restricted to 50 from midnight Tuesday irrespective of the venue’s seating capacity.
Only people who travel for work or essential services may travel between provinces.
Various health experts have called for a lockdown to contain the fast-spreading delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“The next two weeks has already been decided,” Public Health Inspectors (PHI) Union Chairman Upul Rohana said.
“Results of whatever decisions taken at this moment will be seen in another four weeks,” he said.
Government officials have said the lockdowns have hit economic activities and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners amid closure of many small-scale companies.
The government is compelled to strike a balance between controlling the pandemic through lockdown and allowing people to engage in their economic activities to meet the ends meet.
Images and videos circulating in social media showed hospital wards overflowing with patients, many of whom were see lining hospital corridors, half asleep on the floor. As of Tuesday, 5,340 people have died, a vast majority of whom perished in the third wave which officially began in mid-April, after the traditional Sinhala & Tami New Year holidays that saw much unrestricted travel around the country.
Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila has stated that the allegation that a Cabinet paper was submitted to lease the Trincomalee Port, Oil Tank Complex and 33,000 acres surrounding it to the United States is completely untrue.
The Minister was commenting on a statement allegedly made by JVP Politburo member Wasantha Samarasinghe as the Convener of the Voice Against Corruption at a media briefing.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Minister Udaya Gammanpila said JVP Politburo member Wasantha Samarasinghe, posing as the convener of the Voice Against Corruption, has made a series of lies about him at a press conference on Sunday.
“He has stated that I have submitted a Cabinet paper to lease the Trincomalee Port, the oil tank complex and the 33,000 acres associated with it to the United States. His statement is a blatant lie. I did not submit such a cabinet paper. I challenge him to show me a copy of the cabinet paper,” the Minister said in a statement.
The Minister pointed out that since the JVP ally, United National Party (UNP) in 2003 leased the oil tank complex to India for 35 years and the fact that Mr. Wasantha Samarasinghe failed to understand that those oil tanks cannot be leased to another country until 2038 shows that he is unable to understand it is still 2021.
He further said it is ridiculous that a former Member of Parliament Wasantha Samarasinghe did not know that if the Trincomalee Port is to be leased to the United States, a Cabinet Memorandum should be submitted by the Minister of Ports and not the Minister of Energy.
“I would also like to inform Mr. Samarasinghe for his general knowledge that the Ministry of Energy does not have 33,000 acres in Trincomalee to lease to the United States, not even to be used for a domestic purpose and 33,000 acres is a vast tract of land spread over many villages.”
What Mr. Samarasinghe has actually done is to add three more lies to the JVP’s series of lies, Gammanpila said.
Southeast Asian countries that had widely rolled out Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines are turning away from the shots in favour of Western alternatives as they scramble to contain deadly outbreaks caused by the Delta variant.
The shift in a region where China vies with the US for influence underscores the limits of Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy. Countries such as Indonesia and Thailand once bet heavily on China’s Sinovac, despite warnings from medical experts, but their health systems have come under intense strain as the Delta variant tears through towns and cities. Indonesia has recorded more than 100,000 deaths overall.
“The current reality does present a stark contrast to the fanfare with which Beijing rolled out their vaccines and then insisted on their high efficacy, even when data was less available,” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore who studies US-China competition in Asia. The change, he added, shows “how risky it is to try to make the current pandemic, and the very real dangers to human life, into a sort of propaganda tool”.
Sinovac and Sinopharm were among the earliest to begin clinical trials, but they did not release full data. Millions of people have taken the shots, which governments rushed to procure amid supply constraints before the US pledged to share doses. With wealthier nations snapping up Pfizer and Moderna, some developing countries had little choice but to look to China.
Doubts over Sinovac’s efficacy grew in June, when fully vaccinated Indonesian doctors began dying of Covid-19. The Indonesian Medical Association has recorded at least 20 deaths of doctors who were doubly dosed with Sinovac. Earlier that month, the World Health Organisation approved the vaccine for emergency use.
Representatives for Sinovac and Sinopharm did not respond to requests for comment. Sinovac told China’s state-run Global Times newspaper in June that its vaccines cannot give 100% protection but can reduce severity and deaths. Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong, speaking last week at a forum hosted by China’s foreign minister, said the company will submit its clinical research and emergency use applications for the Delta variant to Chinese regulators in coming days, and said the company has “sufficient production capacity” to develop and produce the vaccine in response to the new strains.
Among the casualties in Indonesia was Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar, the lead scientist in the country’s Sinovac trials, according to local media. The nation of 270 million began administering the US-made Moderna vaccine in late July to healthcare workers, after Washington donated eight million doses.
Scenes of these donations – in boxes emblazoned with American flags – contrasted with those in January, when Indonesian President Joko Widodo received his Sinovac shot on live television. Health officials held up the vaccine box, adorned with Sinovac’s name, to boost trust in the doses. Chinese state media hailed Widodo’s move while touting the vaccine as “safe and effective”.
Thailand has also moved to mix shots, changing its policy in mid-July to immunising people with a first shot of Sinovac and a second shot of AstraZeneca. Healthcare workers who are already fully vaccinated with Sinovac will receive a third booster shot, either of AstraZeneca or an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer or Moderna.
Before the policy change, Thai media reported the existence of a memo, supposedly leaked from an official meeting about vaccine use, that warned against giving a different booster shot to those already fully vaccinated with Sinovac because doing so would be an admission that the Chinese-made shot “can’t give protection”. The leak prompted an outcry, and the hashtag #GivePfizerToMedicalWorkers began trending on social media.
Even Beijing’s closest allies are making the switch. Cambodia said last week that it would start offering AstraZeneca booster shots to those who had received two doses of the Chinese-made vaccines, which have already been rolled out to about half of the population.
Responding to a question in May on whether Cambodia is too dependent on China, Prime Minister Hun Sen dismissed the suggestion as “unjust”.
“If I don’t rely on China, who will I rely on? If I don’t ask China, who am I to ask?” he said. “Without assistance from China, maybe we will not have vaccines for our people.”
China has held up its vaccine donations as a public good, especially for developing nations, while criticising vaccine nationalism. President Xi Jinping said last week that the country would provide two billion doses to the world this year.
Yet even before the Delta variant surge, people showed a preference for Western-made vaccines, particularly the mRNA shots developed by the US. A survey early this year in the Philippines showed more than 63% of adults preferred the US as a source of coronavirus vaccines. In May, residents flocked to the one site offering Pfizer doses, with lines forming from 2 a.m.
“We saw this huge divide even in the medical community among those willing and outright not willing to receive Sinovac,” said Vincen Gregory Yu, a physician and public health researcher. He said he encountered vaccine hesitancy among his peers and family, who signed up for Moderna through the private sector.
“In most cases, it’s not really, ‘We don’t want this vaccine because it’s not effective,’ ” he said. Instead, he said, it’s more that “‘we don’t want to accept this because something better will arrive’”.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who declared early in his term that he would say “goodbye” to Washington, a long-standing ally, maintains warm relations with China. He accepted another million doses of Sinovac days ago as his country endures a new lockdown amid a surge in infections.
But he admitted that his decision to preserve a defense pact between the US and the Philippines was influenced by a recent donation of Moderna vaccines from Washington.
“It’s give and take. Let’s thank them, and I gave them a concession,” Duterte said.
Chong said the vaccine experience has made some Southeast Asian countries realize “that reliance on the People’s Republic of China is not enough, whether on vaccines or other matters”.
(This appeared in The Washington Post on 10 August. Regine Cabato in Manila and Pei Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report)
As a measure to control the rapidly spreading Covid-19 epidemic, the government has re-imposed inter-provincial travel restrictions from midnight Monday (10).
The government lifted the travel restrictions between the provinces which had been in operation for nearly two months from the 2nd of this month.
But in view of the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus, the health sector had requested the President to re-impose travel restrictions.
Accordingly, the government took steps to re-impose travel restrictions between provinces.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to limit the maximum number of people who can attend weddings to 50 from midnight today.
The health department had earlier allowed 150 people to attend the wedding for venues with more than 500 seats and 100 people at venues with less than 500 seats.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to temporarily ban religious festivals. The gazette notification containing the new health guidelines is to be issued by the Director General of Health Services tonight.
The decision was taken following a discussion between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Health Secretary Dr. Sanjeewa Munasinghe and Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena at the Presidential Secretariat today.
The court has ordered to remand MP Rishad Bathiudeen until the conclusion of the case file against him.
He was produced before the Fort Magistrate earlier today (August 10).
The parliamentarian and his brother were arrested on April 24 for allegedly aiding and abetting the suicide bombers who perpetrated the deadly terror attacks on April 21, 2019.
The former minister was taken into custody at his residence in Bauddhaloka Mawatha in Colombo while his brother Riyaj Bathiudeen was apprehended in Wellawatte area.
They were initially interrogated under a 72-hour detention order obtained by the CID under the provisions of Article 6(1) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
However, a subsequent 90-day detention order was obtained pursuant to Article 9(1) of the PTA as the two arrestees need to be interrogated further.
DSG Dileepa Peiris yesterday informed Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya thata Chief Inspector (CI) of Police would soon be produced in Court and named as a suspect on charges destroying and concealing evidence and conspiracy to do so in connection with the suspicious death of the 16-year-old maid Jude Ishalini who was employed at the house of MP Rishad Bathiudeen.
DSG Peiris stated that the Chief Inspector in question had reportedly visited the MP’s house the day after the deceased had been admitted to hospital with severe burn injuries and had then gone to meet the sibling of the victim. Hence, the prosecution told the Courta probe will be initiated against the Chief Inspector as serious suspicions had arisen regarding his conduct, in connection with the incident and having allegedly tampered with the crime site.
Magistrate Jayasuriya also ordered IGP C.D. Wickremaratne to ensure that the Police Department does not issue statements to the Media pertaining to the case through predetermination as the investigations into the case are still at a decisive stage. Besides DSG Peiris, who appeared on behalf of the Attorney General, the CCD and PCWB represented the prosecution.
Meanwhile, the Court dismissed the bail applications submitted by the four suspects, including MP Bathiudeen’s wife and further remanded them till 23 August. On 15 July, a 16-year-old girl, who was serving as domestic aide at the Bathiudeen’s residence, succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital.
She had been under medical care for 12 days since her admission to the hospital on 3 July. The girl, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been 15 years of age when she was brought to the Parliamentarian’s residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work last October. The JMO who conducted the post-mortem on the girl’s death concluded that she had been sexually exploited.
Thereby, the former Minister’s wife, father-inlaw, and the middleman, in question, were taken into custody on 23 July, based on the testimonies recorded from nearly 20 individuals, autopsy results, and the evidence gathered by the investigating officers, which pointed to the fact that the deceased girl was subjected to abuse.
In addition, the 44-year-old brother-in-law of MP Bathiudeen was also taken into custody and produced before the JMO for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman who worked as a domestic helper at the lawmaker’s official residence from 2015 to 2019. The victim’s remains were exhumed on 30 July for a second post-mortem by a Court-appointed specialist medical team.
Sri Lanka is to be discussed on the opening day of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Session in September.
The draft program of work shows Sri Lanka on the agenda on 13th September, the opening day of the 48th Session of the UNHRC in Geneva.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is to present an oral update on Sri Lanka during the session.
Bachelet is listed to present her update as the session opens on 13th September.
Member and observer nations at the UNHRC will later make comments on the update while Sri Lanka will also present a right to reply.
Bachelet had told the Council in February that by repeatedly failing to advance accountability for past human rights violations committed, and by withdrawing its support for the Council’s resolution 30/1 and related measures, the Government of Sri Lanka has largely closed the door on the possibility of genuine progress to end impunity through a national process.
Colombo Magistrate’s Court has rejected the bail applications filed by four suspects including the wife of MP Rishad Bathiudeen.
The order was issued when the case regarding the death of a teenage domestic worker serving the Bathiudeen household was taken up today (August 09).
The Magistrate had further remanded the suspects until August 23.
On July 15, a 16-year-old girl, who was serving as domestic help at the Bathiudeen residence, succumbed to severe burn injuries while receiving treatment at the Colombo National Hospital. She had been under medical care for 12 days since her admission to the hospital on July 03.
The girl, who was residing in the Dayagama area, had been 15 years of age when she was brought to the parliamentarian’s residence at Bauddhaloka Mawatha for domestic work last October.
The judicial medical officer who conducted the post-mortem on the girl’s death concluded that she had been sexually exploited.
Thereby, the former minister’s wife, father-in-law, and the middleman in question were taken into custody on July 23 based on the testimonies recorded from nearly 20 individuals, autopsy results, and the evidence gathered by the investigating officers which pointed to the fact that the deceased girl was subjected to abuse.
In addition, the 44-year-old brother-in-law of MP Bathiudeen was also taken into custody and produced before the Judicial Medical Officer for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman who worked as a domestic helper at the lawmaker’s official residence from 2015 to 2019.
Her remains were exhumed on July 30 for a second postmortem by a court-appointed specialist medical team.
Sri Lanka’s private credit surged by 83 billion rupees in June 2021, while credit to government surged 170 billion rupees, of which 124 billion rupees were printed, official data showed.
Sri Lanka private credit in the first six months of the year was 414 billion rupees, up from 372 billion rupees a year earlier.
Authorities are expecting private credit of around 800 billion rupees in 2021.
Analysts had warned that rising private credit would expand imports and the trade deficit, as money is channeled into areas which are not controlled by bureaucratic ‘omniscience’ (and may be second best for the individual users and the economy as a whole) overriding the first preference of economic agents.
When loans are re-financed by central bank credit (printed money) there are forex reserves losses when they are redeemed for dollars either in the trade or financial account (debt repayments).
If money was not printed, state debt repayments would be made by ‘crowding out’ private credit at a higher rate of interest, reducing or eliminating forex reserve losses by reducing imports.
Data showed that that in June central bank credit was 124 billion rupees, helping push government borrowings from the banking system of 170 billion rupees.
In June there was outright monetization through Treasury bill purchases by the central bank as well as window borrowings. It is not clear how gross foreign reserves were reported to be the same as in May amid a fall in net reserves.
Credit to state enterprises also grew 19.4 billion rupees.
The June private credit of 83 billion rupees is the highest since the 87 billion rupees in September 2020, when the economy had recovered from lockdowns and the second wave started.
The 83 billion came despite the lockdown. However in June parallel exchange rates surged, and it is not clear whether the credit is due to early import covering and late exporter sales which usually accompany a confidence shock to the soft-peg.
Sri Lanka is operating a non-credible peg at around 203 without monetary policy to back it (floating short term rates) and suffers frequent currency crisis. The exporter and import panic is due to a so-called ‘flexible exchange rate’ where there is very little credibility.
The International Monetary Fund backed ‘flexible exchange rate’ driven by dual anchor conflicts triggered two currency crises in 2015 and 2018 and led to the flight of all capital from rupee debt markets.
