Sri Lanka records four more COVID-19 fatalities
As virus toll nears 21,000 and Risk Alert Level remains at 3
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka recorded four more COVID-19 related fatalities on Tuesday (24), as 459 new cases were confirmed and the Ministry of Health placed the country’s COVID-19 Risk Alert Level at 3.
Level 3 risk alert translates into many cases including community spread, with undetected cases likely, and calls for limited everyday activities to increase safety.
The Department of Government Information in a statement announcing the multiple deaths identified the deceased as three males aged 74, 54, and 42 – from Ginigathhena in the Nuwera Eliya district, Siyambalape South in the Gampaha district and Atalugama in Bandaragama, and a female aged 73 from Colombo 15.
The statement said the 74-year-old male from Ginigathhena had been transferred from the Welikada prison hospital to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Ragama Teaching Hospital, where he had died of multiple organ failure due to COVID-19 related diarrhoea.
The 54-year-old from Siyambalape South had died at the General Hospital Colombo, with the cause of death determined to be chronic kidney disease aggravated by COVID-19 infection, while the 42-year- old from Atalugama, had been transferred from the Panadura Base Hospital to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Angoda, where he had died of chronic liver disease complicated by COVID-19 infection and encephalitis.
The 73-year-old female from Colombo 15, confirmed as COVID-19 positive had been transferred from the General Hospital Colombo to the Homagama Base Hospital, where she had died of a stroke and COVID-pneumonia.
The statement said Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena, had confirmed all four deaths to be COVID-19 related, taking the COVID fatality count to 94
Eighty one deaths have now been officially recorded since October 24, since 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 Tuesday, the Minuwangoda/Peliyagoda cluster had recorded 17,436 cases with the 459 cases confirmed during the course of the day.
According to the daily update of the Department of Government Information all confirmations are linked to the Peliyagoda cluster, which take Sri Lanka’s novel coronavirus count to 20,967 with 14,962 being deemed recovered and discharged under the new health ministry guidelines that don’t require multiple PCR tests, and 5,911 receiving treatment at various designated hospitals across the country.
-ENCL