UK COVID-19 variant  found in nine locations in Sri Lanka

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The UK COVID-19 variant, now called alpha, had been detected in 80 persons in nine locations in the country, Dr. Chandima Jeewandara, the Director of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura said yesterday.

The variant had been found in Colombo, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Kuliyaputiya, Wariyapola, Habaraduwa, Tissamaharama, Karapitiya, and Ragama, he said.

The Indian COVID-19 variant, now called delta, had been detected in an Indian patient at a quarantine facility, Dr. Jeewandara said, adding that the delta variant was 30% to 100% more transmissible than the alpha variant.

However, the data indicated that Sri Lanka sequenced less than 0.1% of the cases from 01 May, 2021, Executive Director  of the Institute for Health Policy, Dr Ravi Rannan-Eliya said.

“It’s no fault of USJ, since it’s up to the government to fund this project, but it implies our genomic sequencing is less than 0.1% of cases since 01 May. We need a lot more genomic sequencing on systematic random samples,” he said.