Breaking News 148

COLOMBO (News 1st); A magnitude 2.5 minor tremor was experienced in Yala Block 01, close to Sithulpawwa on Tuesday (24) night.

The Chairman of the Geological Survery and Mines Bureau Anura Walpola confirmed to News 1st that a tremor was experienced in the Hambantota area shortly after 09:15 PM.

Earlier on Tuesday (24), a tremor measuring a magnitude 5.1 was reported from the Bay of Bengal, some 600 km north of the Jaffna Peninsula.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan authorities announced that 255 vaccination centers will be open on Friday (20), across 23 districts in the island.

COLOMBO (News 1st); 170 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for Tuesday (17), said the Director-General of Health Services on Wednesday (18). The total number of COVID fatalities in Sri Lanka now stands at 6,604.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Former President Maithripala Sirisena has requested President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to call for an all-party meeting to discuss Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 situation.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday (17), the Former President noted that Sri Lanka can secure assistance from the World Health Organization in greater ways, as the WHO has continuously stressed on movement restrictions in the country.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka Police said although weddings have been banned in the country due to COVID-19, permission will be granted for marriage registrations.

Police Spokesperson Senior DIG Ajith Rohana said marriage registrations can take place only with the couple getting married, the parents, two witnesses and the marriage registrar.

Sri Lanka will go into daily Quarantine Curfew from 10 PM to 04 AM daily, until further notice.

The Police Spokesperson said special operations will be in effect to trace violators.

COLOMBO (News 1st) ; Sri Lanka has almost reached maximum health care capacity in almost all of the health care facilities throughout the country, warned the Association of Medical Specialists in a Press Release titled ‘COVID-19 : We Are On The Edge’.

‘State morgues have already exceeded their storage capacity. The situation is equally grim even if one has financial means as the private sector is also stretched to it’s limit,’ the statement added.

The Association of Medical Specialists warn that the daily death toll is ever increasing and Sri Lanka currently records one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world.

The Association of Medical Specialists are of the opinion that much tougher movement restrictions should be imposed sooner than later as there is no time left for complacency.
complacency.

Without such measures, the health care system will have little breathing space to optimise the care extended to critical Covid as well as non Covid patients,’ it added.

The Association of Medical Specialists urge the government to revisit its Covid-19 restriction protocols in the wake of surging numbers of critical patients and deaths.

‘Even though we have the best vaccination drive in the world (at present), we don’t expect the current vaccination drive to have an impact on the present wave of the epidemic which is playing havoc in our country,’ said the statement.