scholarly journals COVID-19 epidemic in Sri Lanka: A mathematical and computational modelling approach to control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
WPTM Wickramaarachchi ◽  
SSN Perera ◽  
S Jayasignhe
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Critical Parameters ◽  
World Population ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
First Case ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Government

AbstractThe ongoing COVID19 outbreak originated in the city of Wuhan, China has caused a significant damage to the world population and the global economy. It has claimed more than 50,000 lives worldwide and more than one million of people have been infected as of 04th April 2020.In Sri Lanka, the first case of COVI19 was reported late January 2020 was a Chinese national and the first local case was identified in the second week of March. Since then, the government of Sri Lanka introduced various sequential measures to improve social distancing such as closure of schools and education institutes, introducing work from home model to reduce the public gathering, introducing travel bans to international arrivals and more drastically, imposed island wide curfew expecting to minimize the burden of the disease to the Sri Lankan health system and the entire community. Currently, there are 159 cases with five fatalities and also reported that 24 patients are recovered and discharged from hospitals.In this study, we use the SEIR conceptual model and its modified version by decomposing infected patients into two classes; patients who show mild symptoms and patients who tend to face severe respiratory problems and are required to treat in intensive care units. We numerically simulate the models for about five months period considering three critical parameters of COVID transmission mainly in the Sri Lankan context; efficacy of control measures, rate of overseas imported cases and time to introduce social distancing measures by the respective authorities.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Epidemic in Sri Lanka: A Mathematical and Computational Modelling Approach to Control

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
W. P. T. M. Wickramaarachchi ◽  
S. S. N. Perera ◽  
S. Jayasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Critical Parameters ◽  
World Population ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
First Case ◽  
Local Case

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak that originated in the city of Wuhan, China, has caused a significant damage to the world population and the global economy. It has claimed more than 0.8 million lives worldwide, and more than 27 million people have been infected as of 07th September 2020. In Sri Lanka, the first case of COVID-19 was reported late January 2020 which was a Chinese national and the first local case was identified in the second week of March. Since then, the government of Sri Lanka introduced various sequential measures to improve social distancing such as closure of schools and education institutes, introducing work from home model to reduce the public gathering, introducing travel bans to international arrivals, and more drastically, imposed island wide curfew expecting to minimize the burden of the disease to the Sri Lankan health system and the entire community. Currently, there are 3123 cases with 12 fatalities and also, it was reported that 2925 patients have recovered and are discharged from hospitals, according to the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka. In this study, we use the SEIR conceptual model and its modified version by decomposing infected patients into two classes: patients who show mild symptoms and patients who tend to face severe respiratory problems and are required to be treated in intensive care units. We numerically simulate the models for about a five-month period reflecting the early stage of the epidemic in the country, considering three critical parameters of COVID-19 transmission mainly in the Sri Lankan context: efficacy of control measures, rate of overseas imported cases, and time to introduce social distancing measures by the respective authorities.

scholarly journals Optimal Control Measures to Combat COVID 19 Spread in Sri Lanka: A Mathematical Model Considering the Heterogeneity of Cases

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tharindu Wickramaarachchi ◽  
Sanjeewa Perera
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Optimal Control ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Health System ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Government

The COVID 19 pandemic caused by the novel corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) has been one of the major public health concerns across the globe, currently more than 3.5 million individuals have been infected, and the number of deaths has passed 250,000. The world wide burden of the disease has been massive, and the governments are in dilemma to protect the health system of the country while safeguarding the economy. There is no vaccine or antivirus drug found against this virus while multiple research groups are actively working on a suitable candidate. The only available mode of minimizing the disease burden has been to control its transmission among the population. Since the occurrence of first COVID 19 local case on 11 March 2020, the government of Sri Lanka introduced serious social distancing and public health interventions in its fullest capacity as a developing nation to effectively combat with the disease spread. This study focuses to develop a mathematical model to investigate the dynamic of this novel disease using an extended version of an SEIR compartmental structure considering the heterogeneity of cases such as asymptomatic, symptomatic with mild indications and the cases required intensive care treatments. All the measures and interventions are in progress with a significantly large social and economic cost, thus, optimal control techniques are used to identify the most appropriate strategies to minimize this cost. The results of the simulations prove that optimal control measures can be worked out as the epidemic curves are flattened while delaying the outbreak so that the health system might not be under pressure to treat and care the patients.

scholarly journals Sri Lanka: Physical Reconstruction and Economic Development as Conflict Prevention Factors

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (69) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Boženko Đevoić
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Postconflict Reconstruction ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACT This article gives an overview of the 26 year long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and examines physical reconstruction and economic development as measures of conflict prevention and postconflict reconstruction. During the years of conflict, the Sri Lankan government performed some conflict prevention measures, but most of them caused counter effects, such as the attempt to provide “demilitarization”, which actually increased militarization on both sides, and “political power sharing” that was never honestly executed. Efforts in post-conflict physical reconstruction and economic development, especially after 2009, demonstrate their positive capacity as well as their conflict sensitivity. Although the Sri Lankan government initially had to be forced by international donors to include conflict sensitivity in its projects, more recently this has changed. The government now practices more conflict sensitivity in its planning and execution of physical reconstruction and economic development projects without external pressure.

Prospects and restraints of green roofs for high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-260
Author(s):  
Subaskar Charles ◽  
Herath Vidyaratne ◽  
Damithri Gayashini Melagoda
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Green Roof ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Expert Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Rise ◽  
The Government

Purpose Green roofs are acknowledged as a method to substitute greenery washed out by the urbanization. They provide many ecological and sustainable benefits of greenery; reduce the adverse effects of high-rise building constructions. Though this concept is more popular across many countries over the past few decades, still, implementation of this technology in Sri Lanka is new and scant. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the potential of green roofs in high-rise buildings in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach The data collection was conducted through expert interviews and questionnaire survey. Expert interviews were carried out to validate the prospects and restraints identified through literature review to the Sri Lankan context and analyzed using content analysis. Questionnaire survey identified the most significant prospects and restraints using descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test. Purposive sampling was used to select participants. Findings Reduction of air pollution, aesthetical appearance, thermal benefits and energy savings, reduction of an urban heat island effect, the addition of points in the green rating system are the top most significant prospects that need to be highlighted in promoting green roof systems in Sri Lankan high rises. Less space allocation on rooftops, lack of technical competence and lack of awareness and research are restraints that need most effective elimination strategies to encourage green roof systems. Originality/value The first identified and quantified prospects and restraints for green roof system in Sri Lankan high-rise buildings can be utilized by the government, donors, multi-lateral agencies to promote the sustainable development in Sri Lanka and this knowledge could be used in different scale awareness programs. The value of this paper is such that the paper discusses the links of green roofs with the other facets of sustainability. The new legal reforms and amendments in Sri Lanka could potentially be pending with findings of this study.

Framing the Responsibility to Protect

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Nackers
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
International Community ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
World Summit ◽  
Dominant Discourse ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Government ◽  
Outcome Document

The Responsibility to Protect (r2p), as enshrined in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document, aims to protect populations from the commission of mass atrocities. Yet both Sri Lankan government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (ltte) forces killed thousands of civilians during the conclusion of Eelam War Four in Sri Lanka, in spite of the adoption of r2p by the Sri Lankan government. In this article, I argue that these atrocities occurred with little involvement on the part of the international community to stop them, in large part due to existing international political dynamics, which the framing efforts of the Sri Lankan government played upon. The government was able to determine the dominant discourse on the conflict and portrayed it as part of the War on Terror. This facilitated states in supporting the government in the conflict, while diminishing criticism from actors that may otherwise have been more supportive of the invocation of r2p.

scholarly journals Post-War Religious Violence, Counter-State Response and Religious Harmony in Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-223
Author(s):  
Mohammad Agus Yusoff ◽  
Athambawa Sarjoon
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Religious Violence ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Religious Tolerance ◽  
Religious Nationalism ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
State Response ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War

Abstract Sri Lankan military forces and government authorities have succeeded to counter measure terrorism by defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, their initiatives and efforts to restore peace and harmony among different ethno-religious groups in the post-war context are highly complex. The additional space given to the reemergence of radical religious groups has negatively influenced the process of fostering religious tolerance and harmony, which have been maintained for centuries in the country. Ethno-religious minorities became the major targets of religious hatred and violent attacks. At both the societal and political platforms, majoritarian religious sentiments and discourse have established a dominant presence in opposing the existence and practice of the religious fundamentals of minorities. This study has attempted to investigate the nature and impact of majoritarian religious violence in post-war Sri Lanka, as well as the efforts made by the government authorities to control them in order to foster religious tolerance and harmony in the country. This study argues that religious violence under the shadow of religious nationalism has been promoted by many forces as a mechanism by which to consolidate a majoritarian ethno-religious hegemony in the absence of competing ethnic-groups context in post-war Sri Lanka. In many ways, state apparatuses have failed to control religious violence, maintain religious tolerance and inter-religious harmony, particularly of accommodating minorities in nature. The study concludes that the continuous promotion of majoritarian religious hegemony through anti-minority religious hatred and violence would further promote religious intolerance and radicalism challenging the establishment of religious harmony in the country.

scholarly journals THE TORTUOUS PATH OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO ENSURE POST-WAR RECONCILIATION—THE CASE OF SRI LANKA

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jehan Perera
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Counter Measures ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
The Government ◽  
Post War ◽  
Main Engine ◽  
Horizontal Inequalities

For the past three decades Sri Lanka was stalemated between governments that were not prepared to devolve power to the Tamil majority provinces and a Tamil militant movement that wanted a separate country. In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and LTTE signed a ceasefire agreement under Norwegian government auspices that appeared to offer the real prospect of a final end to violence as a means of conflict resolution. The ceasefire between the government and the LTTE held for nearly four years despite significant problems affecting the peace process, problems that led to the LTTE’s withdrawal from the peace talks. However, the ceasefire collapsed in early 2006 with a series of ambushes of government soldiers by the LTTE, eventually leading to counter measures and counter attacks by the forces of the government, measures in which the government wrested back control of territory placed under the control of the LTTE by the terms agreed upon by the Ceasefire Agreement. Today Sri Lanka is a country that continues to be deeply divided on lines of ethnicity, religion and politics. Horizontal inequalities, defined as severe inequalities in economic and political resources between culturally defined groups, were undoubtedly a contributing factor for the perpetuation of Sri Lanka’s long-running conflict. No sooner it won the war, the government asserted economic development to be the main engine of reconciliation.

scholarly journals A Mathematical Model of COVID-19 Using Fractional Derivative: Outbreak in India with Dynamics of Transmission and Control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjad S. Shaikh ◽  
Iqbal N. Shaikh ◽  
Kottakkaran Sooppy Nisar
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Fixed Point Theory ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Approximation Technique ◽  
Transform Method ◽  
First Case ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control

Since the first case of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) detected on Jan 30, 2020, in India, the number of cases rapidly increased to 3819 cases including 106 deaths as of 5 April 2020. Taking this into account, in the present work, we are studying a Bats-Hosts-Reservoir-People transmission fractional-order COVID-19 model for simulating the potential transmission with the thought of individual social response and control measures by the government. The real data available about infectious cases from $14^{th}$ March to $26^{th}$ March 2020 is analysed and accordingly various parameters of the model are estimated or fitted. The Picard successive approximation technique and Banach's fixed point theory have been used for verification of the existence and stability criteria of the model. Numerical computations are done utilizing the iterative Laplace transform method. In the end, we illustrate the obtained results graphically. The purpose of this study is to estimate the effectiveness of preventive measures, predicting future outbreaks and potential control strategies using the mathematical model.

Sri Lanka

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambika Satkunanathan
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Commercial Activities ◽  
Military Members ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
The Status ◽  
Surveillance Programs ◽  
The Government ◽  
Status Of Women

Since the end of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009, the government has used national security concerns to legitimize ongoing human rights violations and an increasing militarized society. This chapter examines how this militarization impacts Sri Lankan women. It begins with an overview of the status of women during and after the conflict. It describes Sri Lankan militarization, including the physical presence of military members, military involvement in civil society and commercial activities, and military influence in the education system. The chapter explores the gendered impacts of such militarization, ranging from a fear of sexual violence to the weakening of community trust and political activity in light of extensive surveillance programs. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the various strategies used by women to survive and retain agency in this militarized context.

scholarly journals Quantifying human mobility behaviour changes during the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yixuan Pan ◽  
Aref Darzi ◽  
Aliakbar Kabiri ◽  
Guangchen Zhao ◽  
Weiyu Luo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
First Case ◽  
Mobility Behaviour ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Behaviour Changes

AbstractSince the first case of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was confirmed in Wuhan, China, social distancing has been promoted worldwide, including in the United States, as a major community mitigation strategy. However, our understanding remains limited in how people would react to such control measures, as well as how people would resume their normal behaviours when those orders were relaxed. We utilize an integrated dataset of real-time mobile device location data involving 100 million devices in the contiguous United States (plus Alaska and Hawaii) from February 2, 2020 to May 30, 2020. Built upon the common human mobility metrics, we construct a Social Distancing Index (SDI) to evaluate people’s mobility pattern changes along with the spread of COVID-19 at different geographic levels. We find that both government orders and local outbreak severity significantly contribute to the strength of social distancing. As people tend to practice less social distancing immediately after they observe a sign of local mitigation, we identify several states and counties with higher risks of continuous community transmission and a second outbreak. Our proposed index could help policymakers and researchers monitor people’s real-time mobility behaviours, understand the influence of government orders, and evaluate the risk of local outbreaks.

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