An average of 5.5% of 13000 persons tested, reported positive for Covid-19 daily

An average 5.5 percent people are testing positive for COVID-19 daily in Sri Lanka out of the 13,000 being tested, while Colombo continues to be the epicentre of the virus, a senior medical doctor, involved in the testing procedures told Daily Mirror yesterday.

The doctor said that currently, the number of tests varied from between 12,000 to 13,000 PCR and Rapid Antigen tests which were being conducted across the country, and out of these, an average 5.5 percent were testing positive daily.

The senior official said that there was no improvement in the pandemic situation in Sri Lanka but authorities were trying their best to prevent it from going out of control. The senior doctor further raised concerns as to why the results released from the testing labs, and those officially released by the Epid Unit were not tallying and said this had been raised with the authorities.

“Because of this we are also trying to figure out the infection rate as there seems to be a discrepancy in the results released by the labs and the Epid Unit. The official figures and what is released from the lab do not tally but it is being addressed,” the senior doctor said.

Colombo continues to record the highest number of patients while new patients are also being reported from several other districts too . Within the past week, official figures show 700 to 800 new patients are continuing to be reported daily from across the country and officials have requested to increase the number of tests further, warning that there had been no improvement in the pandemic situation, especially in the Western Province.(JAMILA HUSAIN)