Arrival of illegal immigrants from India on the rise: Dr. Samaraweera

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama  

Chief Epidemiologist Dr Sudath Samaraweera said there was a trend of illegal immigrants entering the country from India posing a threat of spreading COVID-19 in the country.  

He told media there was a trend of illegal immigrants arriving in the country from India and the numbers are on the rise.  

“Regardless of frequent Navy patrolling around the island, the risk of Indians entering Sri Lanka illegally remains steady. If anyone of them was infected with COVID-19, there is a high risk of spreading the virus in our society,” Dr. Samaraweera said.  

He said a total of 2,959 persons were identified as COVID-19 positive until yesterday, and among them, 2,811 had been discharged after being recovered. A total of 136 patients are still remaining in rehabilitation centres.  

“Most of the patients reported from the centres had arrived from various countries from time to time. No patient was identified in the society so far. More than 214,000 PCR tests have been conducted to identify COVID-19 positive cases so far. More than 2,600 PCR tests were conducted yesterday alone,” Dr. Samaraweera added.  

He told media there was a trend of illegal immigrants arriving in the country from India and the numbers are on the rise.  

“Regardless of frequent Navy patrolling around the island, the risk of Indians entering Sri Lanka illegally remains steady. If anyone of them was infected with COVID-19, there is a high risk of spreading the virus in our society,” Dr. Samaraweera said.