WEB DESK

36 navy personnel are among 40 patients tested positive for COVID-19 today in Sri Lanka, raising the number of active patients to 939. Out of the total 1789 infections so far, 839 have recovered while 11 persons have died due to the virus.

Of the total infections, 838 are navy personnel, out of which 426 have recovered. Navy spokesman Isuru Sooriyabandara said the consistent rise in the number of infected navy personnel infected is due to PCR tests being conducted on specific groups of officers.

Sri Lanka has not seen any community case for over a month and public life is slowly returning to normalcy with safety precautions in place. Almost all the cases for over a month are either from navy or Sri Lankans returning from foreign shores.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa today instructed the officials to send returnees from foreign countries for quarantine only after results of PCR tests conducted at the airport are known. It was decided to set up a laboratory at the airport premises in order to speed up obtaining results of PCR tests.