Self quarantine immediately if suffering from cold, cough, fever

People who are suffering from the common cold, cough or even a fever have been urged to stay at home and go into self isolation immediately and if symptoms remain even after a day or two, should seek medical advice, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

Chief Epidemiologist of the Epidemiology Unit, Dr Sudath Samaraweera told Daily Mirror that people should avoid going out with the above symptoms, especially using public transport, and if symptoms persist, they should seek medical help so that doctors could decide if they need to be tested for the COVID-19.

"They should quarantine at home and if symptoms do not settle within a day or two, they should seek medical advice so doctors could decide if they need to be tested for COVID-19 or if it can be treated as a common cold," Samaraweera said.

He added that community testing for the COVID-19 was continuing across the country, to check for possible undetected patients as many who were detected with the virus to date had shown no symptoms as they were asymptomatic.

As at last evening, the number of COVID-19 patients had surpassed 2,730, as more patients from the Kandakadu cluster tested positive with the virus while the number of recoveries also rose to above 2,048 with the navy cluster completely coming to an end as all patients were treated and discharged.

The Kandakadu Treatment Centre had the highest number of patients with over 360 patients followed by the Welikanda Base Hospital, IDH and the Army Hospital in Panagoda. (JAMILA HUSAIN)