COLOMBO – Seventy-five new COVID-19 patients were identified in Sri Lanka as at 11:30 a.m. on Monday (5), the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 (NOCPOC) said.
Out of the 75 patients, five are returnees from abroad – two from Dubai, two from the UAE and one from Ukraine, while the rest are garment factory workers from Divulapitiya in the Gampaha district, traced to the 39-year-old woman who tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday (3). At least 950 people who had maintained direct or indirect contact with the garment factory worker have been identified so far, the Public Health Inspectors Union of Sri Lanka (PHIUSL) said.
With the new cases, total confirmed COVID-19 patients in the island have risen to 3,470. Some 42 individuals are currently under investigation in hospitals, with 131 active cases.
Four Sri Lankan patients who had arrived from abroad returned home upon recovery as at 6:00 a.m. Monday, bringing total recoveries in Sri Lanka to 3,258.
By Monday morning, 449 Sri Lankans stranded overseas arrived in Colombo, 142 flew in from Doha, Qatar, 27 from India and 280 from Narita, Japan NOCPOC said, adding that all returnees will be directed to military-run quarantine centres.
Officials said the Covid Prevention Task Force was investigating three-clusters of possible COVID-19 patients related to the patient in Divulapitiya and 69 cases have been confirmed as positive so far.
“We have tested 80 people who had direct contact with the first patient and 69 have been shown as positive for COVID-19,” NOCPOC spokesman Colonel Vijitha Hettiarachchi said.
The towns of Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Veyangoda are under indefinite police curfew, he added.
-economynext.com