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Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly become an era-defining challenge for the entire world. It has implications not only in the public health sector but also in the global economy and political landscape. The prevention strategy that has been followed in Sri Lanka is unique. Early action taken by t...

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Autores principales: Hettiarachchi, Dineshani, Noordeen, Nafeesa, Gamakaranage, Chanpika, Somarathne, E. A. Rumesh Buddhika D., Jayasinghe, Saroj
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Singapore 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33169085
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-020-00153-z
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author Hettiarachchi, Dineshani
Noordeen, Nafeesa
Gamakaranage, Chanpika
Somarathne, E. A. Rumesh Buddhika D.
Jayasinghe, Saroj
author_facet Hettiarachchi, Dineshani
Noordeen, Nafeesa
Gamakaranage, Chanpika
Somarathne, E. A. Rumesh Buddhika D.
Jayasinghe, Saroj
author_sort Hettiarachchi, Dineshani
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly become an era-defining challenge for the entire world. It has implications not only in the public health sector but also in the global economy and political landscape. The prevention strategy that has been followed in Sri Lanka is unique. Early action taken by the government and the ministry of health, being one of pre-emptive quarantining and isolation of suspected contacts even before they developed symptoms, was vital to contain the spread of the disease. During the early phase, a nationwide lockdown in the form of a curfew was imposed which helped mitigate the spread of the virus. However, due to several lapses, there was a threat of community transmission; this was swiftly brought under control through ongoing government interventions. Thus, strict social/physical distancing measures enforced by the government, together with an increase in testing capacity, prevented widespread community transmission. Strictly containing the outbreaks as and when they were identified made it easier to bring the spread under control through contact tracing. In this article, we give an account of the strategy taken by Sri Lanka to mitigate the pandemic and comment on the lessons learned concerning the ethical responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
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spelling pubmed-76093642020-11-05 Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka Hettiarachchi, Dineshani Noordeen, Nafeesa Gamakaranage, Chanpika Somarathne, E. A. Rumesh Buddhika D. Jayasinghe, Saroj Asian Bioeth Rev Perspective The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly become an era-defining challenge for the entire world. It has implications not only in the public health sector but also in the global economy and political landscape. The prevention strategy that has been followed in Sri Lanka is unique. Early action taken by the government and the ministry of health, being one of pre-emptive quarantining and isolation of suspected contacts even before they developed symptoms, was vital to contain the spread of the disease. During the early phase, a nationwide lockdown in the form of a curfew was imposed which helped mitigate the spread of the virus. However, due to several lapses, there was a threat of community transmission; this was swiftly brought under control through ongoing government interventions. Thus, strict social/physical distancing measures enforced by the government, together with an increase in testing capacity, prevented widespread community transmission. Strictly containing the outbreaks as and when they were identified made it easier to bring the spread under control through contact tracing. In this article, we give an account of the strategy taken by Sri Lanka to mitigate the pandemic and comment on the lessons learned concerning the ethical responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Springer Singapore 2020-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7609364/ /pubmed/33169085 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-020-00153-z Text en © National University of Singapore and Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
spellingShingle Perspective
Hettiarachchi, Dineshani
Noordeen, Nafeesa
Gamakaranage, Chanpika
Somarathne, E. A. Rumesh Buddhika D.
Jayasinghe, Saroj
Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_full Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_fullStr Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_full_unstemmed Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_short Ethical Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic—Lessons from Sri Lanka
title_sort ethical responses to the covid-19 pandemic—lessons from sri lanka
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7609364/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33169085
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s41649-020-00153-z
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