Tuesday 25th May, 2021
What has beset Sri Lanka, courtesy of the current government, is a textbook example of Morton’s fork, or a dilemma in which both choices available by way of solutions are equally undesirable. Today, the countrywide lockdowns (euphemistically called travel restrictions) aimed at curbing the spread of the pandemic are scheduled to be eased briefly. Medical experts are calling for tougher measures; they want the government to couple lockdowns with a quarantine curfew for at least two weeks to contain the highly transmissible virus. The government was in two minds for weeks; to close or not to close was the question that troubled it. Thankfully, it seems to have made up its mind at last; lockdowns are to continue, we are told.