Smoking In Time Of Corona: Why Limiting Smoking Important In Battle Against Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has already claimed thousands of lives worldwide. As expected with any respiratory illness, there is clear evidence that smokers are much more vulnerable to COVID-19 than non-smokers.

- Sunimalee Madurawala

As such, Sri Lanka’s National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) has made a request from the government to temporarily ban the sale of cigarettes to help curtail the spread of COVID-19. In addition, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has also called for a temporary ban on smoking in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, the country’s director-general of Health Services has likened the sale of cigarettes to selling “death” and has requested shop owners to refrain from selling cigarettes.

In this context, this article discusses how smokers can make the crisis worse and provides short-term policy recommendations that can help control the spread of the disease in Sri Lanka. In particular, the article makes a compelling case for imposing a temporary ban on cigarette sales in Sri Lanka.

Smokers make COVID-19 pandemic worse

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended stopping smoking as smokers are more vulnerable to the disease. Even though smokers have been identified as one of the high-risk groups, they have not received as much attention as the other highrisk groups (older people and those with pre-medical conditions).

Any kind of tobacco smoking is harmful to the body, especially the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Data from China, where COVID-19 originated, shows that people who have cardiovascular and respiratory conditions caused by tobacco use (or otherwise) are at a higher risk of developing the severe COVID-19 symptoms.