No lockdown, curfew in Sri Lanka, says PM

Colombo, July 17 Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday said that the island country will not face a lockdown nor curfew following the detection of a new COVID-19 cluster at a rehab centre.

Speaking to heads of media institutions and senior editors, Rajapaksa said the patients detected recently were not from the society but all from quarantine camps or were the associates of camp employees or inmates from the Kandakadu Drug Rehabilitation Centre, reports Xinhua news agency.

"This is not a second wave. All these contacts have been traced and quarantined," Rajapaksa said, adding that all steps were being taken to prevent any social transmission of the virus.

Commander of the Army and Head of National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said more than 4,000 PCR tests had been performed for the contacts of Kandakadu in recent days, but so far all indications were that there was no local transmission of the virus at large.

Sri Lanka's total COVID-19 patient count reached over 2,680 on Friday morning after over 490 patients tested positive for the virus at the Kandakadu Rehabilitation camp.

Out of the total number infected to date, 2,007 patients have been successfully treated and released, while 11 deaths have been reported, the Health Ministry statistics showed.

Sri Lanka reopened its capital for economic activities in the last week of May after being shut for over two months and has since assured that the virus was under control.

Authorities said that its international airports will also reopen next month once the repatriation process ends.

( With inputs from IANS )