Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday said that none of those who clamoured to have the lockdown had come forward with any practical solutions to revive the economy hard hit by the pandemic.

In a statement released to the media, Minister Fernando said: “A country cannot be shut down till the cows come home in fear of a virus. We should aim to return to normal across the country with massive vaccinations in the coming weeks. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last Saturday addressing the nation explained the situation we are in. We must all look above the petty political differences to keep the country’s economy going. The lockdowns will worsen the economic situation that had been affected by the pandemic restraints. Those who earned daily wages are already cursing the political and civil society leaders for exhorting the government to lockdown. The health experts and WHO officials too have only the solution of vaccination against the COVID-19 virus. Shutting a country down is not a solution in the face of a pandemic.

Thanks to the efforts by the President, the country is receiving vaccines and we should expedite the massive vaccination drive.

“We hope that people will understand that the Opposition has only one role, that is to take the opposite side of whatever that we the government would do. That is the nature of politics but this is not a time for such narrow political gains. The opposition has no single standpoint. One day they keep asking for the closure of the country the next day they demand to open the country. The Opposition led the people to the streets for rallies during the past couple of weeks, giving no regard to the warnings of health officials. They sacrificed people for their political objectives. Now they pontificate the value of health guidelines. The government is keeping the country’s economy going despite the restraints of the pandemic. We must plan on opening the country and going for the stage of new normalisation. That is what the other countries are doing. We must complete the vaccination drive as soon as possible and think of opening the country soon,” the Minister said.