COLOMBO – Sri Lanka closed all schools in the Western and North Central Provinces and isolated 10 Grama Niladhari Divisions around the island on Monday (26), as COVID-19 numbers continued to rise, with 952 new cases reported during the course of the day.
Education Minister Prof G. L. Peiris told reporters on Monday afternoon all schools, pre-schools and pirivenas (monastic schools) in the Western and North Central Provinces will be closed until April 30.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 task force announced the isolation of Polhena, Heeralugedara, Kaluaggala in the Kotadeniya police area and Aswennawaththa East in the Minuwangoda police area in the Gamapaha district, Pelawaththa North and East in the Megahatenna police area in the Kalutara district and Pupuhar in the Trincomalee district.
Later in the day, Army Commander Gen Shavendra Silva, who heads the task force, also announced that the Imbulagoda and Katudampe Grama Niladhari divisions in the Galle district were place under isolation from 8:00 p.m. on Monday.
The Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre will also be isolated due to it being a high risk area, the pandemic task force said in a statement.
The economic centre was isolated at the start of the second wave of the pandemic in October last year when a cluster was detected there affecting the livelihood of farmers and retailers.
Other areas already isolated in the wake of the Avurudu surge are Kuliyapitiya, Thittawelgama Niraviya and Nikadalupotha Grama Niladhari Divisions in the Kurunegala district and Adhikarigoda in the Kalutara district.
Sri Lanka has seen a surge in daily COVID-19 cases in the days following the Sinhala & Tamil New Year holidays, with close to 800 cases a day since Friday (23).
Health authorities urged the public to minimize travel and continue to strictly adhere to health guidelines in order to control the spread of the virus, which authorities suspect to be a new strain.
Neelika Malavige, Professor in Microbiology at the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, told a press briefing on Friday the SARS-Cov-02 virus is now confirmed to infect while airborne and not just as droplets.
“We will know what the new strain in Sri Lanka is within the next few days,” she said.
The new variant has the capacity to infect more people than before, and while many cases earlier were asymptomatic, she said, this time even younger people are showing severe symptoms.
“This virus is airborne. If I’m infected and I remove my mask and speak, the virus can enter the surrounding and will be active for 1 ½ hours even after I leave the premises, infecting anyone who walks in after me,” she said.
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