281 persons test positive for COVID-19

• 1,085 delayed cases added to total
• 659,859 COVID-19 patients detected in total
• Includes 72,011 patients detected this year
• 18,615 persons currently under medical or home-based care

By Shailendree 

Wickrama Adittiya

Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 case count rose to 659,859 following the detection of 281 COVID-19 patients and the addition of over 1,000 delayed cases added to the total yesterday.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 1,085 COVID-19 cases between 16 February and 28 February were added to the total after verification.

On Tuesday, 281 COVID-19 patients were detected and the previous day, 296 COVID-19 patients were detected. The Health Promotion Bureau states that 3,229 PCR tests and 1,613 rapid antigen tests were conducted on Monday.

A total of 72,011 COVID-19 patients have been detected since 1 January and the country’s local cases include 483,090 patients from the New Year cluster, 82,785 patients from the Peliyagoda cluster, 9,154 patients from the Prisons cluster and 3,059 patients from the Divulapitiya cluster.

The country’s imported cases include 7,237 Sri Lankan returnees from overseas and 328 foreigners.

The Epidemiology Unit states that 138,122 patients from Colombo, 113,929 patients from Gampaha, 58,034 patients from Kalutara, 45,138 patients from Galle, and 31,284 patients from Kuruengala have been detected.

During the third wave of the pandemic, 105,825 persons from Colombo, 95,395 persons from Gampaha, and 50,976 persons from Kalutara tested positive for COVID-19.

At present, 18,615 persons are under medical or home-based care and 1,025 persons suspected of having COVID-19 are under observation.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 59 persons were released from care yesterday, raising the country’s COVID-19 recoveries to 624,804.