Sunday Apr 28, 2024
Sunday Apr 28, 2024
Tuesday, 1 June 2021 03:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
The country’s COVID-19 detections rose to 184,983 with 2,912 persons testing positive for the virus yesterday.
The patients detected yesterday include 2,882 persons from the New Year cluster. The Divulapitiya, Peliyagoda, Prisons and New Year clusters have thus expanded to 179,771 persons. Of the four clusters, the New Year cluster, which emerged after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year last month, is the largest, with 85,093 detections as at 10 a.m. yesterday.
The Peliyagoda cluster has 82,785 COVID-19 detections, the Prisons cluster has 5,952 detections, and the Minuwangoda cluster has 3,059 detections. At present, only the New Year cluster and the Prisons cluster are active.
The country’s imported cases include 4,331 Sri Lankan returnees from abroad and 318 foreigners.
This takes into account the 2,779 persons from the New Year cluster, 70 persons from the Prisons cluster, and 10 Sri Lankan returnees from abroad who tested positive for the virus on Sunday.
Of the 2,859 patients detected on Sunday, 608 were from Colombo, 547 were from Gampaha, 447 were from Kalutara, 143 were from Galle, and 136 were from Kegalle.
The overall district distribution of COVID-19 patients records 47,554 persons from Colombo, 31,854 persons from Gampaha, 18,662 persons from Kalutara, 9,807 persons from Kandy, and 8,960 persons from Kurunegala.
Over 75,000 COVID-19 patients were detected in May alone, with the country’s total COVID-19 detections and active patient count recorded as 108,146 and 10,990 respectively at 10 a.m. on 1 May.
At present, 33,183 persons are under medical care, including 628 persons at the Punani Treatment Centre, 475 persons at the Bingiriya Treatment Centre, and 460 persons at the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital.
There are also 1,667 persons suspected of having COVID-19 under observation at various hospitals.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 1,915 persons were discharged from hospitals yesterday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the island to 151,740.
The Health Promotion Bureau states that 20,785 PCR tests were performed yesterday.
Meanwhile, health officials yesterday asked the public to seek medical advice if they experience symptoms like fever and body aches as they could be either COVID-19 or dengue symptoms.
“If an individual has fever, they must not self-diagnose at home, saying they have dengue, viral fever, or COVID-19. An individual must visit a doctor or hospital as soon as possible if they display such symptoms,” Dr. Indika Weerasinghe of the Health Ministry’s National Dengue Control Unit said.
He added that the likelihood of complications is high if an individual who has one disease contracts another, for instance, a COVID-19 patient contracting dengue.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 7,674 dengue patients have been detected this year, with 1,496 patients detected in January, 1,794 patients detected in February, 849 patients detected in March, 1,823 patients detected in April, and 766 patients detected in May.
The same period last year saw a total of 20,718 dengue detections and the same period the previous year saw 20,378 patients. Batticaloa had the highest number of detections this year, with 2,884 dengue patients. Colombo District had 1,249 detections and Gampaha District had 569 detections.
