COLOMBO – Sri Lanka recorded four more COVID-19 related deaths on Saturday (7), three of them women, all of them from the Western Province, taking the country’s novel coronavirus death toll to 34. The four deaths are the second highest reported in a day following the five COVID-19 related fatalities reported on Thursday (5). Saturday also recorded 449 new cases of the novel coronavirus taking the country’s total to 13,419.
The Department of Government Information in a statement announcing the deaths identified the four deceased as three females aged 42 and 69 and 88, and a male aged 67. Two of them had died at home taking the number of COVID-19 related deaths at home to 10.
The statement said the 42-year old female from Maligawatta, Colombo 10, who had a long history of heart disease had died at home, and her death has been determined to have been due to complications caused by COVID-19. The second female, a 69-year old, also from Maligawatta, had been suffering from a number of chronic diseases and had been admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo due to the exacerbation of the diseases. She had died at the hospital and the cause of death was determined to be pneumonia due to COVID-19 infection.
The third female, an 88-year-old from Ganemulla, in the Gampaha district, had been identified as a close associate of an infected person reported from Minuwangoda. She had been confirmed as COVID-19 positive while being quarantined and admitted to the Laggala Pallegama Hospital. The statement said she was later transferred to the Angoda Infectious Disease Hospital where she died. The cause of death has been determined to be COVID- pneumonia and septicemia
The Government Department of Information said Director General Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena had confirmed all four deaths to be COVID-19 related.
Nineteen deaths have now been officially recorded since October 24, following the emergence of a new and more virulent strain of the virus in a new cluster in Minuwangoda, with the apparel factory in the area as the epicentre earlier in the month. Since then the cluster has seen sub-clusters in several parts of the country, with the largest case load reported from the Peliyagoda fish market. As of Saturday, the Minuwangoda cluster had recorded 9,937 cases with 449 testing positive for the virus during the course of the day.
According to the Department of Government Information update, 445 of cases confirmed on Saturday are persons linked to the Minuwangoda-Peliyagoda cluster.
Saturday confirmations take Sri Lanka’s novel coronavirus count to 13, 419, with 7,723 being deemed recovered and discharged under the new health ministry guidelines that don’t require multiple PCR tests, and 5,662 receiving treatment at various designated hospitals across the country.
-ENCL