Twenty-nine Sri Lankan Navy personnel have tested positive for Covid-19 taking the overall number of infections in the island-nation to 368 in the country, an army official said yesterday.
Army Commander Shavendra Silva said that the 29 Navy personnel have contracted the virus during the recent search operation carried out in Suduwella, Ja-Ela to find out suspected Covid-19 patients, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.
Accordingly, the Army Commander said the Navy Camp at Welisara has been declared as an isolated area.
He requested all sailors who went on leave after quarantine duty, to report back immediately to undergo PCR tests.
As of yesterday, Sri Lanka has also reported seven Covid-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, the National Association for Professionals in Tourism (NAFPT) said it had launched a four-day campaign in several areas of the island-nation to assist foreign tourists who are currently stranded due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said the NAFPT had launched the campaign titled “Tourism Disaster Monitoring and Hosting Programme” along with the Tourist Police Division where tourism officials will visit the foreign tourists, providing them with dry ration gift packages, familiarising the current situation and identifying the difficulties they are facing and providing assistance, reports Xinhua news agency.
The officials will travel across the country for the next four days covering the capital Colombo, Katunayake, Negombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Pasikuda, Arugambay, Udawalawe, Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, and Bentota, which are tourists hotspots in the island country.
Sri Lanka shut its international airports last month for all passenger arrivals to prevent a further spread of the Covid-19 but said passenger departures would continue.
A security official (right) checks the body temperature of a pedestrian during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Colombo yesterday.
