Category: Featured Headlines

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) urges the President to continue the current travel restrictions without interruptions.

The Association mentioned this in a letter addressed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in response to the government’s recent decision to relax the island-wide travel restrictions for two days from June 21.

The SLMA says that it foresees that the release of the current lockdown even for a few days will lead to the uncontrolled free movement of people and thereby leading to an ‘alarming ‘ increase in transmission, with the rapid spread of the new Delta variant found among the community.

‘The epidemic will thereby escalate to an unprecedented level causing increasing numbers of cases and unacceptable mortality on a scale that would completely overwhelm the health system’, the letter read.

The eventual ease of lockdown will have to be carefully phased on a district basis, grounded on real-time data at the district level rather than in the country as a whole, SLMA stated.

SLMA says that an ‘exit strategy’, which is currently under development, will be handed over to the government during the course of this week.

Thereby, SLMA urges the government to continue with the current lockdown measures uninterrupted, during this crucial moment, as lifting the lockdown even for a few days would take the country back to the major epidemic situation that prevailed in April this year.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin urges Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant citizenship to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act on his maiden visit to New Delhi.

According to the official data, 58,843 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are staying in 108 refugees camps around Tamil Nadu, while 34,135 are staying as non-camp refugees, but they have registered with the local police.

In a memorandum handed over to PM Modi, M K Stalin asks Indian government to ensure Tamils in Sri Lanka have equal civil and political rights.

Sri Lanka has registered 54 more victims of COVID-19, the Director-General of Health Services confirmed today.

The latest fatalities have moved the death toll from the virus infection to 2,534, according to Government Information Department’s data.

Reportedly, the victims have succumbed to the virus infection on Friday (June 18).

As per official data, 43 victims were aged 60 years and above and 02 were aged between 30-59 years with 02 aged below 30 years.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said that incorrect data on COVID-19 deaths forced the decision to extend the travel restrictions which was to be lifted on 14th June.

“Though it was decided to lift travel restrictions on June 14, steps were taken to extend the restrictions until June 21 based on the data received that 101 deaths were reported on June 11,” said the President on Friday (18) at the Presidential Secretariat.

The President at a meeting with the Special COVID-19 Committee extensively elaborated on the data obtained by the Health sector and the Intelligence Unit following a thorough investigation conducted into the causes of deaths.

“It was also revealed that some of the deaths occurred during the four-month period from February 06 to June 11, and death certificates had also been issued. Information on certain deaths was found to have been mentioned twice,” he told the COVID-19 Committee.

The President said that it was revealed following an in-depth investigation that the death toll occurred on June 11 was not 101 but only 15.

The President emphasized that accuracy and timeliness in the provision of data is essential for making the right decisions.

With the Chinese Navy getting new port projects in Sri Lanka, a top Indian Navy officer said that it ‘could pose a threat’ to Indian interests in the region and there is a need to keep a close watch on such activities, Asia News International (ANI) reported today (19).

In an interview with ANI, Navy Vice Chief Vice Admiral G Ashok Kumar said the Indian Navy is very well prepared to secure the maritime boundaries of the country.

“If you want to analyse whether it is a threat or not, it is a very difficult question. But the fact that when somebody is external to the region starts showing so much interest even though they might have rational reasons to do so as the majority of their energy sources pass through this region … Is it a logical thing for nations to do, yes? Could that pose a threat to us, it could. We just need to ensure that it is being closely watched,” he told ANI on Friday (18), responding to a query on whether China’s getting hold of a new port in Sri Lanka could pose a threat to India.

When asked if the Indian Navy was keeping a close watch on such activities, he said, “Yes, in the entire region.”

Responding to a query on whether the Chinese could surprise India through the sea route, he said that after the 26/11 attack on Mumbai, India had taken a number of steps like installation of the coastal security network and had enhanced surveillance capabilities.

“The chances of India getting surprised in the maritime domain to have reduced… we are much better prepared today than what we were a decade ago,” the Vice Admiral said.

He said that the Indian Navy is a capability-driven force and more strength would be added to it in the form of new assets in the near future.

(ANI)

SLPP national organiser Basil Rajapaksa, who is currently in the United States, is scheduled to return to the island next week and is expected to assume the ministerial portfolio of Economic Affairs, Government sources said.

He is expected to be sworn in as a Member of Parliament upon his arrival, the sources said, adding that a SLPP national list MP has already agreed to resign from his parliamentary seat to make way for Basil Rajapaksa.

When inquired about this, a senior official of the Prime Minister’s Office said that there are plans to hand over a number of responsibilities to Basil Rajapaksa, which has been assigned to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Minister of Finance.

A senior official at the Prime Minister’s Office said that plans are afoot to delegate many responsibilities coming under the purview of the Minister of Finance to Basil Rajapaksa.

The sources observed that both the President and the Prime Minister have agreed to hand over complete control of economic affairs to Basil Rajapaksa as a means to resolve the internal crisis within the ruling coalition that came to the fore with the fuel price hike.

However, a close associate of Basil Rajapaksa when contacted said that such reports on social media are unfounded. He stressed that Basil Rajapaksa had no intention to enter Parliament at this time.