COLOMBO – The number of COVID-19 positive cases detected at the Brandix plant at Minuwangoda rose to 739, with 418 new patients identified by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday (6), as the government declared an indefinite police curfew in Gampaha, effective 6:00 p.m. Tuesday.
A statement from the Department of Government Information, urged all those working at the Brandix plant In Minuwangoda and their families in whichever part of the country, to observe strict self isolation at home.
It also announced that arrangements were being made to transfer families of COVID-19 positive patients to military-run quarantine centres, and requested the family members to be prepared to depart on short notice.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Operating Centre for Preventing COVID-19 (NOCPOC) said tests were on-going at the factory, which employs a full-time staff of over 1,200.
NOCPOC said all 739 confirmed cases are personnel from the Brandix plant where the first patient was found, adding that the figure will likely go up further as more test results come in.
Medical personnel have conducted thousands of PCR tests in the Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Veyangoda areas over the past 24 hours. And as several staff members had gone home on holidays during the long weekend last week, cases have also been detected in a number of cities and towns across the country, including Jaffna, Kurunegala, Monaragala, Katana Seeduwa, Divulapitiya, Meerigama, Jaela and Mahara.
Quarantine curfews, which were upgraded to police curfews, Tuesday afternoon are in force in the Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya and Veyangoda police divisions after a community outbreak of COVID-19 was confirmed late Saturday night. An indefinite police curfew is scheduled to go into effect at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday in Gampaha, one of the densely populated districts in the Western Province.
The first person confirmed as COVID-19 position in the new cluster is a 39-year-old mother of three, who is a supervisor in the Brandix plant in Minuwangoda. Her oldest child, a 16-year-old girl, tested positive for the virus, although her husband and the younger children have tested negative so far.
-economynext.com/ENCL