Health authorities yesterday warned that the spread of COVID-19 could increase if people continue to act irresponsibly.
Speaking to the media Deputy Director-General of Health Services Dr S.M. Arnold said that the Health Ministry had issued a set of COVID-19 health guidelines for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season in order to prevent the further spread of the virus. But certain sections of society had acted in an irresponsible manner during the New Year season.
He said that certain countries are now facing the third and fourth waves of the COVID pandemic. But as a result of the collective effort of all responsible groups, Sri Lanka has been able to successfully contain the virus so far.
Dr. Arnold further said that the Health Ministry would not hesitate to take strict legal action if people continued to act irresponsibly.
As of yesterday morning (19), a total of 357 more persons were confirmed positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Seventy Sri Lankan expatriates and 287 of those positive cases are locally-identified ones, including the majority 63 from Colombo District, 50 from Kurunegala District, 41 from Gampaha District and 133 others from different Districts, the National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) stated.
By yesterday morning (19), a total of 96,795 persons, inclusive of 91,786 of the fish market and Minuwangoda Brandix cluster have been confirmed positive from all over the country and 93,112 fully recovered COVID-19 patients have been so far discharged from hospitals. The rest (3,065) are still under treatment in hospitals and care centres.
In the past 24 hours, 281 recovered patients have left hospitals. One death has been reported in the past 24 hours. Accordingly, the COVID-19 death toll in the country remained at 618 by yesterday morning (19).
As of yesterday morning (19), 10,500 persons in 104 tri service-managed Quarantine Centers are still in quarantine. On Sunday (18), 4,286 PCR tests were conducted.