Coronavirus Updates

Sri Lanka says Coronavirus cluster being controlled as most Kandakadu Covid-19 contacts test negative

ECONOMYNEXT – Coronavirus tests conducted on most contacts of Covid-19 infected staffers on leave from drug rehabilitation centres in Kandakadu has been negative, officials said while urging the public and private firms to follow health regulations and exercise caution.

Sri Lanka quarantined hundreds of persons who had come into contact with staff and volunteers including military personnel who had worked at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kandakadu where inmates had got infected from addicts who had been transferred after a two-week quarantine.

Result of 395 tests done on contacts in Rajangana in Anuradhapura, where a number of persons had become infected from a staffer on leave had been negative on July 15, Anil Jasinghe, head of Sri Lanka’s Health Service said.

Contacts of an infected person at a private hospital in Ragama had also been negative, he said. More test results are due.

In Sri Lanka contacts are tested after 10 days. A contact could develop the disease up to 21 days or a little later, but a negative test shows that the persons would not have infected anyone they had met.

Sri Lanka has a gap in quarantine testing unlike in Vietnam, where released persons are tested twice in home quarantine before giving a quarantine certificate.

The rehabilitation centre in Kandakadu is believed to have been infected from drug users who had undergone 14-day quarantine under process followed in Sri Lanka.

In the early days Sri Lanka did not test quarantined persons before release either.

Sri Lanka has an aggressive contact tracing and quarantine process but, but there are unusual restrictions on testing high risk persons, observers have noted.

Jasinghe said 101 samples were taken from Kundasale in Kandy, 74 persons in connection with a church in Kotugoda and 266 persons in connection with Tantirimale and Rantembe who are family members of inmates who had visited them.

Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry said 9 persons had tested positive up to 2130 hours on July 15, taking the total to 2,671 persons.

By late afternoon one person who had returned from Qatar had been confirmed, Jasinghe said.

Sri Lanka’s military chief Shavendra Silva told a television station that one person from Rajangana had tested positive.

About 12,000 persons are in lockdown in Rajangana where family members of a Kandakadu staffer had been infected, Jasinghe said a day earlier.

Meanwhile officials are urging the public to strictly follow Coronavirus health rules and wear masks as they had become more relaxed recently.

“In work places keep the different units separate,” Jasinghe said. Let them come and go separately.

“Heads of institutions are accountable. In recent days we have noticed that the situation has changed. It is not only for this situation but also for the future.” (Colombo/July15/2020)

Sri Lanka COVID-19 regulations likely to be gazetted this week – officials

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s President says heads of government and private bodies will be held accountable for employees adhering to health guidelines in their organizations in the wake of the current spike in COVID-19 cases as officials say the guidelines will be made law this week.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says the spread of the virus in the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Centre is “an unfortunate example”.

At a meeting with the Presidential Task Force to curb COVID-19 at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, July 14, the President had said that “although day-to-day life has returned to normalcy, precautionary measures should not be relaxed as the risk of COVID-19 spread remains high.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Public Health Inspectors’ Union, Upul Rohana, says that the guidelines cannot be enforced by his members because they have not been gazetted as law.

“The Legal Draughtsman’s department and the Attorney General have passed the guidelines, but the Minister has not gazetted the regulations,” Rohana said in an interview published by YouTuber “Truth with Chamuditha”.

Rohana said that barbers, for instance, have been barred from offering head massages or shaves. “But some of the barbers are now doing both. We can’t take action against them because we don’t have the legal power,” he said.

Meanwhile, official sources in the Health Ministry said that the guidelines have been sent back to the Legal Draughtsman’s Department for “fine-tuning”.

These officials said that the regulations will give PHIs and other enforcers on the ground “extraordinary powers and we want to ensure that there is no abuse or misuse.”

They said that the Ministry hopes to gazette the regulations by the end of the week. (Colombo, July 15, 2020-sb)

ලංකාව කොරෝනා පාලනය කරලා.. ලංකාව වාසනාවන්තයි..- ලෝක සෞඛ්ය සංවිධානය කියයි..

කොරෝනා වෛරසය පාලනය කරගත් රටවල් කිහිපය අතරට  ලංකාවද ඇතුලත් වන බව ලෝක සෞඛ්ය සංවිධානය සඳහන් කරයි.
ලංකාව තුළ ස්ථාපිතව ඇති මහජන සෞඛ්ය සේවාව ඊට විශාල සේවයක් කර ඇති බවත් ලෝක සෞඛ්ය සංවිධානයේ ශ්රී ලංකාවේ නිත්ය නියෝජිත වෛද්ය රාසියේ පෙන්සේ මහත්මිය පවසයි.
වසංගතය පාලනය කිරීමට හැකි වූ රටවල් කිහිපය අතරට වාසනාවට  ලංකාවද ඇතුළත් වී ඇතැයි ද ඇය සඳහන් කළාය.
ලංකා රජය හා සමාජය මෙම තත්වය තේරුම් අරගෙන ඇති බවත් එසේ නොවේ වෛරසය එය පාලනය කර ගැනීම අපහසු වන බවත් ඇය තව දුරටත් සදහන් කරයි.

As of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
13,947,479

Deaths:
592,687

Recovered:
8,277,784

248,913 new cases world wide higher than yesterday and registered the highest per day infection count reported so far since the begining of the pandemic.

5,741 more deaths similar to previous 24 hours

USA (73,388), Brazil (43,829) & India (35,468) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. Numbers in USA & India are their highest per day counts so far.

Brazil (1,299), USA (963) & India (680) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Sri Lanka confirms 542 in new Coronavirus cluster as most contacts test negative

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka has confirmed 542 Covid-19 infections in a new Coronavirus cluster linked to a drug rehabilitation centre but most contacts of staffers on leave except family members are testing negative, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s total Coronavirus count went up to 2,619 as 19 new cases were confirmed on July 16 up to 2000 hours health ministry data showed.

Sri Lanka has conducted over 5,000 tests on a new cluster linked to the Kandakadu-Senapura drug rehabilitation camps, officials said.

The head of Sri Lanka’s Health Service Anil Jasinghe said over 2,000 persons, linked to staffers on leave and family members who had come to visit inmates of the camp on July 04 were quarantined.

In Rajangana, where a staffer attended several public functions 12,000 are in lockdown.

Up to July 17, 542 confirmed cases had been found in the Kandakadu cluster.

Test of 120 family members who visited camps housed in Tantirimale have tested negative as had a similar number in Rantambe, he told Sri Lanka’s Derana Television.

In Pallekele out of 101 persons including staff and family members only one staffer had been positive.

A negative result of a first test does not assure that a person will not develop the disease up to 3 weeks or more later, but it indicates that the could not pass it on to the next level.

In Biyagama village out of about 200 persons 8 staffers had tested positive, he said.


In Nikawewa, where 78 were isolated, all had tested negative. In Kotugoda church were 74 persons including a Christian priest and sisters were quarantined, all were negative, he said.

At a private hospital in Ragama 69 who were isolated had tested positive.

In Rajangana, he said 850 tested negative.

Meanwhile tests were also carried out in prisons, he said. At Mahara prison 150 tests were done.

He said 44 were done at the airport.

About 1,500 to 2,000 tests are done daily, he said.

Observers who are familiar with the processes in Vietnam say Sri Lanka still has gaps in the testing and quarantine process, which tends to increase the numbers.

One is the practice of giving quarantine certificate after two weeks in a centre compared to a the Vietnam practice of doing at least two tests after home quarantine and giving a certificate.

Another it the practice of testing contacts are 10 days instead of immediately.
The first test of contact is done to take out any persons who have already developed the disease and also to determine whether there was a possibility of a disease going to the second level, which then require them to be quarantined at a centre. (Colombo/July17/2020)

As of now..

Coronavirus Cases:

14,276,643

Deaths:
601,174

Recovered:
8,525,693

240,481 new cases world wide less than yesterday.

5,559 more deaths similar to previous 24 hours

USA (74,987), India (34,820) & Brazil (33,959) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (1,110), USA (946) & India (676) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Kandakadu COVID 19 toll rises to 550 with another child from Rajangana infected

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s latest cluster of COVID 19 cases from the Kandakadu drug Rehabilitation and Treatment centre has risen to 550 with the addition of nine more patients, the Presidential Task Force to Curb COVID 19 said.

In a statement released at 0600 the Task Force said 6 of the nine are inmates of the two camps, Senapura and Kandakadu.

The others are from different parts of the country but linked to the camps.

A 12-year old girl, from Rajangana, and two others one from Gampaha and another from Yakkala are either associates or family members of staff working at the camps.

A total of 444 inmates, 64 staff and 42 associates and family members of the staff have tested positive since the outbreak was detected on July 7.

One other Covid positive case was detected yesterday and that is a person currently in quarantine at the Rajagiriya centre, the statement said.

Last night the Director-General Health Services Dr Anil Jasinghe said that only the girl at Rajangana had been detected from the whole country and that was an indication that the Kandakadu cluster “is under control.”

The Health Authorities are yet to issue a contact tracing report about how the virus entered the camps.

Jasinghe has said that Kandakadu “was a development of the Suduwella incident.”

Nearly two months ago the Security Forces were deployed to round up some drug addicts in the Suduwella area, some of whom were found to be COVID 19 positive. (Colombo, July 18, 2020)

As of now..


Coronavirus Cases:
14,640,375

Deaths:
608,857

Recovered:
8,734,805

220,072 new cases world wide less than yesterday.

4,316 more deaths less than previous 24 hours

USA (65,279), India (40,243) & Brazil (24,650) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (716), India (675) & Mexico (578) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Coronavirus: Oxford vaccine can train immune system

A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford appears safe and trains the immune system.

Trials involving 1,077 people showed the injection led to them making antibodies and white blood cells that can fight coronavirus.

The findings are hugely promising, but it is still too soon to know if this is enough to offer protection and larger trials are under way.

The UK has already ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine.

How does the vaccine work?
The vaccine - called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 - is being developed at unprecedented speed.

It is made from a genetically engineered virus that causes the common cold in chimpanzees.

It has been heavily modified, first so it cannot cause infections in people and also to make it "look" more like coronavirus.

Scientists did this by transferring the genetic instructions for the coronavirus's "spike protein" - the crucial tool it uses to invade our cells - to the vaccine they were developing.

This means the vaccine resembles the coronavirus and the immune system can learn how to attack it.

What are antibodies and T-cells?
Much of the focus on coronavirus so far has been about antibodies, but these are only one part of our immune defence.

Antibodies are small proteins made by the immune system that stick onto the surface of viruses.

Neutralising antibodies can disable the coronavirus.

T-cells, a type of white blood cell, help coordinate the immune system and are able to spot which of the body's cells have been infected and destroy them.

Nearly all effective vaccines induce both an antibody and a T-cell response.

Levels of T cells peaked 14 days after vaccination and antibody levels peaked after 28 days. The study has not run for long enough to understand what long-term immunity may look like.

Is it safe?
Yes, but there are side-effects.

There were no dangerous side-effects from taking the vaccine, however, 70% of people on the trial developed either fever or headache.

The researchers say this could be managed with paracetamol.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, form the University of Oxford, UK, says: "There is still much work to be done before we can confirm if our vaccine will help manage the COVID-19 pandemic, but these early results hold promise."

As of now...


Coronavirus Cases:
14,857,296

Deaths:
613,335

Recovered:
8,910,967

205,348 new cases world wide less than yesterday.

4,046 more deaths less than previous 24 hours

USA (62,879), India (36,810) & Brazil (21,749) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (718), India (596) & USA (545) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Kandakadu cluster total goes up to 561 two more Navy patients are still in hospital

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s latest COVID 19 cluster produced one more case last night after a family member of a staffer at the Kandakadu Drug Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre tested positive at Rajangana officials said.

This brings the total number from this cluster to 561. Of them 451 are inmates undergoing rehabilitation, 68 are staff members or visiting counsellors and 42 are associates and family members.

The National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID in its morning briefing noted that as of 0600 this morning July 21, six more COVID 19 positive patients had been reported.

In addition to the patient at Rajangana five others had been detected at two different quarantine centres. Three of them are returnees from Saudi Arabia, the statement said.

It also appears that the COVID cluster that has up to now been the largest, the Navy camp at Welisara, is winding down.

Of the 906 Navy personnel who were hospitalized 904 have recovered completely and been discharged, the centre reported. (Colombo, July 21, 2020)

As of now..


Coronavirus Cases:
15,093,246

Deaths:
619,465

Recovered:
9,110,623

239,093 new cases world wide higher than yesterday.

5,678 more deaths higher than previous 24 hours

USA (67,140), Brazil (44,887) & India (39,168) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases.

Brazil (1,346), USA (1,119) & India (671) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

Teacher who gave tuition in the Gampaha area newest COVID 19 victim

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will quarantine around 600 people after a local Teacher in the Gampaha area was tested positive for COVID 19 two days ago, officials said.

The teacher is believed to have the contracted the disease from a driver who had driven an instructor from the virus-hit Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, health officials in the area were quoted in media as saying.

Up to now, around 150 PCR tests have been conducted on people who have come into contact with the teacher as she had been to school and also conducted tuition classes at home the Public Health Inspector (PHI) in charge of the Gampaha District Subash Subasinghe said.

After the emergence of the Kandakadu cluster in the first week of July, the government closed schools as a precaution against a possible second wave of infections but allowed private tuition classes to continue.

Only senior classes were open and the younger students were to resume schools on August 10 after the elections.

Families of each of the children this teacher came into contact have to be tested and quarantined, Col. Media of the National Centre for the Control of COVID Vijitha Hettiarachchi told EconomyNext.

This could come to around 600 people, he said.

Subasinghe said 52 persons were identified as close contacts from the school and 100 individuals were identified as contacts from the tuition classes.

PCR tests were conducted on the group with all the results returning negative, he added

No new COVID-19 cases reported yesterday – National Centre for Prevention of COVID

ECONOMYNEXT- No new COVID-19 cases were reported during the 24- hour period that ended at 6 a.m. this morning, National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 said.

Accordingly, the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the island remain at 2,730 while the total number of PCR testing done increased to 141,515 with 1,100 PCR tests done yesterday.





Further, 30 Sri Lankans were brought from Doha this morning through a special flight where they were directed to quarantine centres controlled by tri-forces upon their arrival.

Reports said these were diplomats, students and Armed Forces personnel who had finished training courses.

The passengers had been on transit in Doha.

More than five thousand people are currently going through the quarantine process at 51 quarantine centres controlled by the tri-forces.

561 COVID positive cases were from the Kandakadu cluster, where 451 were found among the detainees at the Kandakadu Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, 63 staff members, 5 invited staff members and 42 close contacts.


All the Navy personnel (906) who were in the Navy cluster have recovered with the last two Navy personnel recovering yesterday.(Colombo, July 22, 2020)

as of now...

Coronavirus Cases:
15,374,394

Deaths:
630,211

Recovered:
9,349,374

279,769 new cases world wide higher than yesterday and the highest recorded so far in a day!!!

7,113 more deaths higher than previous 24 hours and has crossed 7k mark after 25th April!

USA (71,967), Brazil (65,339) & India (45,599) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. India has recorded the highest number per day!

Brazil (1,293), USA (1,205) & India (1,120) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours. India recorded their highest number of daily deaths and surpass 1,000 mark for the first time!

As of now...


Coronavirus Cases:
15,654,649

Deaths:
636,479

Recovered:
9,535,641

276,000 new cases world wide marginally lower than yesterday and the highest recorded so far in a day!!!

6,309 more deaths lower than previous 24 hours.

USA (69,116), Brazil (58,080) & India (48,446) are the three countries with highest number of new cases that drives the new cases. India has recorded the highest number per day!

Brazil (1,317), USA (1,150) & Mexico (790) were the countries with highest new deaths for last 24 hours.

COVID positive inmate from Kandakadu is on the loose after escaping from IDH – Police

ECONOMYNEXT – Police are seeking public assistance to hunt down a COVID 19 positive inmate from the Kandakadu Rehabilitation camp who has escaped from the Infectious Diseases Hospital near Colombo.

The 41-year-old man, Elsiyam Nazeem, is a native of Sinnampillaisimei, Vallimalar in Trincomalee, a notice issued by Police this morning said.

Nazeem is described as having an injury to his left leg and walks with a limp, the notice said.

He has escaped from the hospital in the early hours of today, Friday, July 24.

Nazeem is “heavily addicted to drugs and is a suspect in various crimes,” Police said.

Some 561 inmates, staff and close associates at the Kandakadu and Senapura rehabilitation camps near Polonnaruwa have contracted the disease.

The camp authorities set up a hospital in the same facility to isolate and treat the inmates as it was believed that they could not be moved to regular hospitals as recovering drug addicts they had to be treated separately.

There was also the fear that they would escape from regular hospitals.

However, one patient, probably Nazeem, was transferred to the IDH earlier this week as he had developed symptoms.

The Public is asked to call 119 or the following numbers to report any sightings of Nazeem.


0718591017

0718592290

0718591864

(Colombo, July 24, 2020)