Colombo: Sri Lankan President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has ordered a 10-day nation-wide lockdown from Friday night, amidst mounting pressure from medics and the powerful Buddhist clergy to curb the raging third wave of Covid-19 infection.
The National Operations Centre for Covid Prevention said that the lockdown would start from Friday 10 pm till 4 am of August 30.
“The quarantine curfew will be in force from 10 pm tonight until 4 am on August 30,” Army chief Gen. Shavendra Silva, who is also the head of National Operations Centre for Covid Prevention, told reporters here.
Rajapaksa earlier refused to heed to calls by medics as coronavirus infections overwhelmed hospitals, morgues and crematoriums.
He held that closing down the country was badly impacting the island’s fragile economy.
However, he was compelled to relent as the powerful Buddhist clergy and his own political alliance members demanded the lockdown in view of the grave situation facing the island nation.
On Thursday, the daily death toll due to Covid-19 hit a record 186. The country also reported 3,800 fresh cases, another record.
Official figures show 6,790 people have died of the virus while 373,165 have been infected so far.
Health experts say the Western province with the capital district of Colombo was the worst hit. Over 75 per cent of the cases in Colombo were from the rapidly spreading Delta variant.
This will be the first time since mid-June that the country will be re-imposing a lockdown. The ongoing third wave of infections is blamed on the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations held in mid-April.
The stepped up vaccination drive was another reason why the government was not keen on re-imposing a lockdown.
Over 5 million out of the 21 million population have been given two doses of a vaccine.
Sri Lanka, which has witnessed a series of lockdowns and curfews to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country, has been impacted in terms of its economy. Tourism sector, which generates a huge quantum of revenue for the island nation, has seen a drastic fall.