The COVID-19 infection is suspected to have spread in the Welisara Camp near capital Colombo when officers came in contact with drug addicts infected by the virus during a raid.
A police officer wearing a facemask holds a stop sign at a checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in Colombo on May 3, 2020. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)
As novel Coronavirus claimed thousands of lives across the world, Sri Lankan officials said on Tuesday that of the 548 active COVID-19 cases in the country, 327 of them are Navy personnel.
The virus has killed eight people with 752 positive cases in the island nation.
Army chief General Shavendra Silva, who heads the island-nation’s COVID-19 prevention mechanism, on Tuesday said, “There were 33 new positive cases found at midnight (Monday), 31 of them are our gallant sailors who are linked to the Welisara camp. The two others are their contacts.”
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The COVID-19 infection is suspected to have spread in the Welisara Camp near capital Colombo when officers came in contact with drug addicts infected by the virus during a raid. The sailors had gone home on leave, spreading the virus further.
Silva further said that 752 positive cases were reported in the country since its first positive case in mid-March, of which 194 patients had been discharged from hospitals after complete recovery.
The Army chief said 1,008 relatives of Navy sailors are presently in quarantine.
Speaking at an online summit of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM), President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said, of all the PCR test only 3 per cent gave positive results and that the virus’ mortality rate in Sri Lanka was less than 1 per cent.
Gotabaya further added that he intends to ease restriction to revive economic activities, while enforcing health guidelines.
Last month, the government had decided to relax the ongoing island-wide curfew which was imposed in March to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus,
If any area where the curfew has been relaxed happens to be identified as a risk village or a zone, curfew will be re-imposed limiting only to such area.
The coronavirus, which first surfaced in China’s Wuhan city in November last, has claimed over 250,000 lives and infected 3.5 million people across the world.
(With inputs from agency)
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