Sri Lanka COVID-19 toll crosses the 30,000 mark
As 694 new cases and two more deaths reported on Wednesday
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s novel coronavirus tally reached yet another grim milestone on Wednesday (9) surpassing the 30,000 mark with 694 new cases confirmed as COVID-19 positive. Wednesday also saw two more deaths, taking the COVID-fatality count to 144.
Wednesday’s confirmations take Sri Lanka’s novel coronavirus count to 30,072 with 21,800 being deemed recovered and discharged under the new health ministry guidelines, and 8,128 receiving treatment at various designated hospitals across the country.
The Department of Government Information said all 694 cases confirmed are linked to Peliyagoda/prison cluster, which has now expanded to 26,516 cases.
Sri Lanka also recorded two more COVID-19 related fatalities, a 20-day old infant from Colombo 15 and a 62-year-old male from Colombo 10. The infant, whose death was reported on Tuesday (8), had, according to Director General Health Service, died at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo of blood poisoning, multi organ failure and COVID- pneumonia, while the 62-year-old, who had been transferred from a private hospital in Colombo to Base Hospital Mulleriyawa, had died of COVID-Pneumonia.
Media reports said the parents of the infant had tested negative for the virus and quoted hospital officials as saying the source of the child’s infection remains a mystery. Director, Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Dr. G. Wijesuriya had said the delay in admitting the infant to hospital had contributed to her death.
The statement from the Government Department of Information said Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena, had confirmed both deaths to be COVID-19 related, taking the COVID fatality count to 144.
One hundred and thirty one deaths have now been officially recorded since October 24, many of them at home and several on admission to hospitals, 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.
-ENCL