In yet another record daily death toll in Sri Lanka, the government information department confirmed 118 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday (10) evening, hours after a top minister said there will be no lockdown measures imposed.
Total COVID-19 deaths in the island now stand at 5,340.
At the time of writing, 1,992 people were confirmed to have been infected on Tuesday, bringing total cases in Sri Lanka to 326,308.
Update: 2,904 cases confirmed in total on Tuesday.
Despite the devastation, and repeated calls from the health sector to impose tighter restrictions, co-cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Tuesday morning that the government has intention to impose a lockdown at the moment.
“There is no intention (for a shutdown). Curfew will be imposed only and only if it is extremely necessary,” Rambukwella told reporters at the weekly cabinet briefing.
“But we can’t it rule out given the world trend. It will be our last option,” he said.
Army commander and head of the national COVID-19 task force Gen Shavendra Silva said Tuesday afternoon that ongoing inter-provincial travel restrictions will be strictly monitored.
Weddings that were restricted to 150 guests, already seen as excessive by some experts, have been further restricted to 50 from midnight Tuesday irrespective of the venue’s seating capacity.
Only people who travel for work or essential services may travel between provinces.
Various health experts have called for a lockdown to contain the fast-spreading delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“The next two weeks has already been decided,” Public Health Inspectors (PHI) Union Chairman Upul Rohana said.
“Results of whatever decisions taken at this moment will be seen in another four weeks,” he said.
Government officials have said the lockdowns have hit economic activities and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners amid closure of many small-scale companies.
The government is compelled to strike a balance between controlling the pandemic through lockdown and allowing people to engage in their economic activities to meet the ends meet.
Images and videos circulating in social media showed hospital wards overflowing with patients, many of whom were see lining hospital corridors, half asleep on the floor. As of Tuesday, 5,340 people have died, a vast majority of whom perished in the third wave which officially began in mid-April, after the traditional Sinhala & Tami New Year holidays that saw much unrestricted travel around the country.