Sri Lanka to lift capital district lockdown; warns people to be more vigilant

Sri Lankan government has said it will lift the ongoing capital district lockdown on Monday, warning people to be more vigilant to prevent a possible third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka has so far reported 13,419 cases of coronavirus and 34 deaths related to it. Some 7,700 of them have been cured so far.

“The curfew which was in force on the Western province will be lifted at 5 am tomorrow”, Army Commander Shavendra Silva, who heads the national operations center to prevent COVID-19, said.

However, Silva said that several areas in the province would still be under isolation.

The capital city and the adjoining Gampaha district was under quarantine curfew continuously over the last 10 days. The city has recorded multiple cases of infections since early October when the island came to be hit by two large clusters of infections.

“If people don’t want to be careful in following health guidelines there is this threat for a lot more serious third wave,” Dr Jayaruwan Bandara, spokesperson for the health ministry, said. He said public must have a change of clothing when they return home after work outside.

Dr Sudath Samaraweera, the chief epidemiologist, said there are a large number of asymptomatic cases. “They spread the virus so fast that is why we have created intermediate quarantine centres to isolate them,” he said.

Health authorities said 50,000 rapid antigen test kits provided by the WHO have been received.

When the island experienced its second wave on October 4 there was only 3,396 cases with just 13 deaths. The infected figure has jumped four times since then.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)