No new COVID-19 cases reported yesterday

Nagalagam Street in Grandpass isolated

By Sandun A Jayasekera

No new patients of COVID-19 were reported in the country yesterday with the number of cases still remaining at 238 as it stood on Wednesday. 68 of them have recovered.

The health authorities, the Sri Lanka Army and the Police isolated Nagalagam Street at Keselwatta in Grandpass, Colombo after a female patient with viral infection was found from the area, preventing people from travelling to and from the street.

Army Commander Lt. General Shavendra Silva said 31 individuals from the Nagalagam Veediya were sent for quarantine.

Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr. Anil Jasinghe said all those tested positive yesterday were those who have closely associated with patients infected with the viral infection.

“Among the five COVID-19 victims tested positive yesterday were two women from Kandakadu and Nagalagam Street. One woman’s mother and brother are also viral infected patients. Another woman has been associated with several individuals who had come from Qatar recently. Two from Palali- Jaffna and the other one from Keselwatta in Grandpass,” Dr. Jasinghe said. The Chief Epidemiologist of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Dr. Eranga Narangoda meanwhile told the Daily Mirror that two more patients were discharged after full recovery from the NIID while the number of confirmed hospitalized cases of COVID-19 infections stood at 163 yesterday with 7 deaths.

There were no COVID-19 related deaths in the last few days and the total number of recovered was 68 and those under medical observation was 238, he said.

District wise, there were 49 patients with viral infections in hospitals in Colombo yesterday, 45 in Kalutara, 35 in Puttalam, 28 in Gampaha, 14 in Jaffna, 7 in Kandy, 5 in Ratnapura, two each in Kurunegala, Matara, Kalmunai and Kegalle, one each in Galle, Batticaloa, Vauniya and Badulla Districts totaling the number of those under hospital treatment at 238.

The villages of Pannila and Cheenakotuwa in Kalutara and Nagalagam Veediya will remain isolated and under quarantine further.

Meanwhile, 28 villagers of Kohugoda, at Maliduwa in the Akuressa Police Division released from Kandakadu quarantine center yesterday after a spell of 14 day quarantine after a man in the village returned from Korea detected positive with the viral infection three weeks ago.