28 November 2021 01:15 pm
Tourists from six South African Countries whose citizens cannot enter the country due to the new COVID variant threat, have not arrived in the country in the last 14 days, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said.
He said passengers from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland have not arrived in the country for the past 14 days and they have been ill barred from entering the country from midnight today (28) due to the Omicron new COVID variant.
The Minister said that the relevant departments will look into whether anyone other than tourists have arrived in the country from these countries during the last 14 days.
He said the health sector will take further action accordingly.
The minister said that there is no restriction to the tourists coming to Sri Lanka from countries other than those banned six countries. He said the authorities would check whether they have visited the relevant countries when issuing visas.
He said nearly 90% of the country's population has been vaccinated so far. The government intends to protect the people and maintain the country under the new normalization program in accordance with the health recommendations, the Minister said.(Darshana Sanjeewa Balasuriya)