Anuradhapura has become red zone with more than 1000 schoolchildren infected with COVID-19

Four deaths reported from town on Tuesday

Anuradhapura District SJB MP Rohana Bandara Dissanayake told Parliament yesterday that his district had become a COVID-19 red zone and more than 1,000 schoolchildren had contracted the disease.

He said that over 100 teachers in the district had also been infected.

The number of patients reported from the Anuradhapura town and its suburbs was increasing at an alarming rate and four persons in the town had succumbed to the coronavirus on Tuesday, MP Dissanayake said.

Claiming that the health authorities had decreased the number of PCR tests conducted in the Anuradhapura town, the MP asked the government to instruct officials to ramp up testing.

He said that the government should act fast without boasting of its successes in the vaccination programme. Minister Chamal Rajapaksa said that he would bring the issue to the notice of relevant officials.