Night curfew will remain to avoid public gatherings: Official

Curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 04:00 a.m. will continue daily until further notice and will not be lifted this week in order to avoid public gatherings, a government official told Daily Mirror yesterday.

With public transportation opening up in Colombo and Gampaha yesterday, speculation was rife that islandwide curfew will be lifted completely this week.

However, the official said discussions on lifting the curfew had not been held yet and that night curfew would remain to avoid people from gathering late in the evenings.

"One more cluster remains active among navy officers. An alarming number of overseas returnees are testing positive for COVID-19. Therefore, curfew in the night will remain until further notice," the official said.

Till last evening, over 1,800 patients were reported out of which 990 had been discharged from hospital upon recovery thereby bringing down total active cases to 834. Out of the total patients, 550 are those who were recently repatriated from overseas while over 800 were navy personnel. (Jamila Husain)