27 May 2020 12:01 am
By Sandun A Jayasekera
Although Sri Lanka’s official tally of COVID19 patients was 1,182 as of yesterday, 157 of them are expatriate Sri Lankans who returned home after falling prey to the viral infection in the country they had lived in, Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva said yesterday.
Sounding an alarm he said if more Sri Lankans were repatriated from Middle Eastern countries, the possibility of there being more infected patients. Nearly 90 Sri Lankans who had arrived from Kuwait had tested positive during the past few days.
“Many of the victims came from Indonesia, Kuwait and Dubai. On Sunday we detected 49 and on Monday 42 tested positive to the virus, increasing the total number of patients dramatically,” Lt. Gen Silva said.
“What is most satisfying in our fight against the virus is that we have successfully controlled the infection among the public. Of a total of 1,182 victims including 10 deaths, there were only 405 civilians who were found to have been infected. The number of personnel tested positive from the Sri Lanka Navy is 619,” he said.
He said since the closing down of the BIA, 3,626 Sri Lankans were repatriated from Italy, Iran, Korea, China, India, Australia, England, Russia, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
”We are winning the war against the deadly virus. What I expect from the public is to be bear with us for another few weeks by strictly adhering to health and security advisories, paramount being physical distancing and hygeine,” Lt. Gen. Silva said.