Sri Lanka imposes indefinite curfew in 2 towns after detection of new COVID-19 case

Sri Lanka on Sunday imposed an indefinite curfew on two western provincial towns to contain the spread of the coronavirus following the detection of a community case after a gap of nearly six months, officials said.

The island nation has so far recorded 3,395 coronavirus cases and 13 fatalities due to the disease.

An indefinite curfew has been imposed on Divulapitiya and Minwangoda towns in the suburbs of Colombo after a COVID-19 positive patient was detected on Sunday, Army Commander and COVID-19 prevention task force head Shavendra Silva said.

He said a female from Divulapitiya who works in an apparel factory was found positive for coronavirus after she was admitted to a hospital in Gampaha for fever. Nearly 50 people from her workplace and the hospital have been sent for home quarantine after she was detected positive for COVID-19.

According to officials, this is likely the first COVID-19 community case detected since April. Recent infections have come from foreign returnees.

The Sri Lankan government on June 28 completely lifted the curfew imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus after no new case of community infection was recorded for nearly two months.

However, international flights are yet to be resumed.

The island nation was under a continuous lockdown since March 20. Initially, a nationwide blanket curfew was imposed but it was later eased for about two-thirds of the country and was mostly confined to nighttime. The government had ordered the partial opening of offices and businesses mid-May. From early June, the restrictions were further relaxed with public transport being allowed.

The government further relaxed the COVID-19 curfew, which was in force from 11 pm to 4 am, to only four hours from midnight to 4 am daily from June 14 onwards. 

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