Lockdowns likely except in Colombo, says govt. official

By Ifham Nizam

The government was contemplating lockdowns in most parts of the country today, but the Colombo District would be kept open till the vaccination campaign was over, a senior government official said yesterday.

He told The Island that the vaccination campaign in the Colombo district was a huge success up to now and the contribution by the Sri Lanka Army should be praised for covering a large spectrum of the society.

The official also said that once the vaccination campaign was over in the Colombo district, there was a high probability of a lockdown there.

The government on Tuesday rejected calls for an immediate lockdown to contain the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus.

Government spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella at the weekly press briefing said that the country had not reached a critical stage even though more than 100 deaths were reported per day on average.

“Curfews or a lockdowns are the last resort, but we are not there yet,” Rambukwella told reporters. “Our target is to get everyone over the age of 18 vaccinated by September and thereafter it is in the hands of the gods,” he told journalists.

However, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) issued a final warning to the government to restrict the movement of people immediately or risk a bigger catastrophe.

The Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health yesterday said that the total confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Sri Lanka was 5,464.