Decision on further travel restrictions today
The decision on whether to lift or extend the travel restriction currently in place, will be taken at the COVID Task Force meeting held today (18).
National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOPCO) Head, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva told the Daily News that today’s COVID
Task Force meeting will focus on the travel restrictions imposed in the country and several other areas pertaining to the travel ban and whether further restrictions should be imposed during the upcoming long weekend.
“So far we have not taken any decision on whether or not to lift or extend the travel restrictions. The COVID Centre has already planned for a COVID exit strategy. No matter when restrictions would be lifted, we need an exit strategy. Hence, we have planned such a strategy where medical and other specialists have come together and worked out how it should be done. So now, it’s a matter on when are we going to exit. Even in Sri Lanka, every city is not equally affected by COVID. These will be discussed at the COVID Task Force meeting today,” he said.
When asked whether the travel restriction has had a positive impact on curtailing the number of infections, the Army Commander said, “It was only two days ago that focus was placed on testing persons from society. The Epidemiology Unit was focused on testing based on exit strategies which we were not satisfied with. The PCR tests need to be done from among the population and not the exit PCR tests. The Director General of Health Services has now taken this matter into consideration and over the past two days, they have been carrying out these PCR tests from among random population groups. So, now we can see the real situation.”
He said that when the lock-down was enforced, the number of COVID positive cases stood between 2500-3000. However, by now a small drop has been observed, he said, adding that the numbers have dropped to around 2200-2500 range. “The specialists say that after the 14th the numbers should drop. Hence, we also believe the numbers would reduce and we certainly hope for the best.”
As of yesterday morning, 2,436 COVID-19 infected people have been identified in Sri Lanka. Of these, 16 are expatriates and one is a foreigner. The remaining 2,419 are reported to be locally identified patients.
The highest number of infections was reported from the Gampaha District with 561 cases being reported. In addition, 516 cases were reported from Colombo District and 156 cases from the Kalutara District. The balance 1,186 were cases reported from various other parts of the country, according to NOCPCO statistics.
The total number of reported COVID cases as of yesterday morning stood at 230,691 and among them were 133,061 cases that were reported after the New Year season.
source http://www.dailynews.lk/2021/06/18/local/251905/decision-further-travel-restrictions-today
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