In a previous editorial, on 2 February to be exact, The Sunday Morning cautioned the authorities to brace for the economic impact of what is now the coronavirus or Covid-19 global pandemic. At the time we made the comments, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had just declared the Wuhan-epicentred coronavirus outbreak in China a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Citing the heavy reliance of the Sri Lankan economy on China, we stated that the authorities concerned would do well to prepare for the inevitable and brace for multiple impacts on the economic front even if the virus itself had minimum impact on Sri Lanka. That prediction has now come to pass. Sri Lanka like many other parts of the world including Europe and the US is in virtual lockdown with people told to minimise their movements and avoid public gatherings. In addition, the multiple flight bans coming into operation and the interruption of the supply chain for many local industries have resulted in factories lying idle and worksites being abandoned due to the foreign labour involved in projects being unavailable due to logistical issues. Sri Lanka could have been much better prepared had the authorities taken the matter seriously over a month ago when China was taking the brunt of the pandemic. Instead, the authorities jumped the gun and proclaimed that only one person, a Chinese female, had been found to have coronavirus in Sri Lanka and was successfully treated at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (IDH) in Angoda which was the sole designated official quarantine centre at the time. The absurdity of it was clear to see when no less a person than the Health Minister herself rushed to pose with the cured patient and proclaimed that Sri Lanka was corona-free. As a result, instead of going into high alert, Sri Lanka went into relaxed mode with tourism authorities also jumping the gun and compiling a video which proclaimed that Sri Lanka was a coronavirus-free country and therefore was one of the safest places for tourists to travel, in order to avoid the virus. It took only a couple of days after the video went viral for Sri Lanka to discover its second coronavirus patient – ironically a tour guide who had been with a group of Italian tourists. The third case was an associate of the tour guide and later three more suspected cases were identified, all of whom were tourists from overseas. It is nothing short of absurd that while one arm of the Government was promoting travel to the country, the other arm was banning travel to the country for obvious reasons. The tourism video was a disaster waiting to happen as tourists could become unsuspecting carriers of the virus. That aside, no country could provide a blanket guarantee that it was coronavirus-free. It is not rocket science to figure out that such a proclamation could open the floodgates for lawsuits should any tourist have contracted the disease while touring the country. While China, Europe, and the US can well afford to be on lockdown for weeks, Sri Lanka simply cannot afford or sustain such a drastic measure due to the precarious nature of its economy. Following bans imposed on airlines flying in from Europe, the Far East, and almost the entirety of the Middle East, tourist traffic has all but dried up and hotels which were just recovering from the Easter Sunday calamity have more or less been thrown from the frying pan into the fire. While hotel occupancy among city hotels is now down to below 40%, it has been reported that even the few Western tourists remaining are being openly targeted as “virus carriers”. This type of conduct will further drive the industry to the ground. The problem became so acute when China was the epicentre of the virus that the Chinese Ambassador himself had to lodge an official complaint with the authorities over mistreatment of Chinese nationals in various parts of the country. What seems inevitable now is a slow and painful recovery process. The authorities need to face reality and re-emphasise the fact that the country’s economy is heading for a very rough ride – the likes of which have not been experienced in recent times. It is no secret that the next Government will have to face an unprecedented revenue shortfall which will be made more acute by the drying up of international funding, most notably from China, owing to its own domestic issues arising out of the coronavirus impact. It is only logical that most lenders will first pump in hard cash to stimulate their own economies battered by the coronavirus before offering assistance elsewhere. Therefore, what matters is for people to be made aware of the reality and made partners in the rebuilding effort rather than the false bravado that is currently on show. Meanwhile, the Government, starved of revenue on multiple fronts, most notably from foreign remittances from Middle Eastern workers to reduced export receipts to dwindling tourism income, may try to capitalise on the world oil price crash by maintaining retail fuel prices at current levels for as long as possible. Brent crude oil which was hovering at around $ 70 a barrel in early January trading this year crashed to below $ 35 a barrel in the last week owing to a combination of reduced demand due to the coronavirus pandemic halting travel and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. All the while, retail prices have remained the same in Sri Lanka. If the oil pricing formula introduced by the former Government was operative, fuel prices could be as much as 25% less at the pump today compared to January but an Opposition obsessed with self-destruction has allowed the Government a free hand in keeping the prices unchanged. While higher prices will bring greater revenue to the Government which will somewhat compensate for the other losses, the biggest beneficiary of it however is the other player in the petroleum sector, the Indian Oil Company (IOC). While one could understand the Government’s predicament, one is at a loss to understand why the Indian oil giant is also allowed to capitalise on the oil price bonanza while selling its products at an even higher premium than the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).