AMN

Another 87 people at a Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre have tested positive of COVID bringing the total infected to 339 in Sri Lanka. Earlier, 196 inmates and staff at the Kandakadu Centre were found positive this morning while 56 inmates and a counsellor had tested positive yesterday in first instance of community transmission after a gap of two months in the country.

A total of 296 new cases of Corona virus were reported today registering a record daily high of new infections in the country. The numbers included nine arrivals from India and one from Pakistan.

Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jaisinghe has said that more PCR tests are already being conducted and there is a possibility of more COVID-19 infections.

He said, the quarantine process and contact tracing have been initiated in order to prevent transmission of the virus to the society. The development has come as a setback to Sri Lanka, which has been successful in contacting the COVID spread so far.

Around two thousand people from a total of 2,100 infections had already recovered before the fresh cases surfaced from the centre. Presently, a total of 456 patients infected with the virus are being treated at hospitals from a total of 2,450 infections so far. Sri Lanka had not seen any community case for over two months and normal life is fast returning to normalcy with schools and universities beginning to open in phases. The country has seen 11 deaths due to COVID so far.