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Saturday May 18, 2024
Friday, 10 December 2021 03:54 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 detections rose to 570,672 with 744 persons testing positive for COVID-19 yesterday.
The patients detected yesterday include 743 persons from the New Year cluster and one overseas arrival. The Health Promotion Bureau states that 7,580 PCR tests were conducted yesterday.
The previous day, 7,307 PCR tests and 5,527 rapid antigen tests were conducted and 757 persons from the New Year cluster tested positive for COVID-19.
A total of 465,797 patients from the New Year cluster, 82,785 patients from the Peliyagoda cluster, 9,054 patients from the Prisons cluster, and 3,059 patients from the Divulapitiya cluster have been detected.
The Epidemiology Unit states that 6,991 Sri Lankan overseas returnees and 328 foreigners are included in the country’s imported cases.
The district distribution of COVID-19 detections shows 115,784 patients from Colombo, 99,040 patients from Gampaha, 53,247 patients from Kalutara, 35,994 patients from Galle, and 27,839 patients Kurunegala.
During the third wave of the pandemic, 83,487 persons from Colombo, 80,506 persons from Gampaha, and 46,189 persons from Kalutara tested positive for COVID-19.
At present, 12,294 persons are under medical or home-based care and 2,446 persons suspected of having COVID-19 are under observation.
The country’s COVID-19 recoveries rose to 543,823 with 356 persons released from care yesterday.
Meanwhile, it was stated yesterday that the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) headed by Army Commander Gen. Shavendra Silva will cease operations.
Inaugurated on 16 March 2020, the NOCPCO has played a role in formulating strategies and implementing plans to control the spread of COVID-19 in Sri Lanka.
“Strategies and modalities proposed by this group resulted in effective patient management, contact tracing, quarantining as well as vaccination of our entire population and the country is fully open now, with some limited restrictions. I am confident that the Ministry of Health, medical and public healthcare staff will be able to further improve the control work of the pandemic in future, and to enter into the year 2022 as a COVID-free Sri Lanka,” Gen. Silva said at the final meeting of the NOCPCO held on Wednesday.
The NOCPCO will be converted into the National Operations Centre for Green Agriculture.
