No community spread of COVID-19 detected yet: Army Chief

Army Chief, Lt. General Shavendra Silva yesterday ruled out that a community spread of COVID-19 had begun following an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients detected from many areas of the country in recent days.

Silva told that what Sri Lanka was experiencing was not a community spread as all patients identified in recent days were linked to the Minuwangoda cluster. He said no isolated case had been brought to the notice of the authorities as yet.

“This has still not gone to the community as all are being detected from the Minuwangoda cluster. A community spread usually starts without a source, or a beginning and this is not the case here. So far all we have got are interconnected to this cluster. There is not a single patient who has come without a source. This is one cluster running,” Silva said.

He said with a few patients detected in Colombo in recent days, people were urged to be cautious as a major damage could occur if people do not practice all the health guidelines strictly. He further said with the COVID-19, no place was safe if the health guidelines were ignored by the public.

Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer of Health from the Colombo Municipal Council, Dr. R. Wijayamuni said that 200 random PCR tests were conducted on the workers at the Fort Railway station yesterday to find out if a community spread of the virus had begun. He said while all patients reported so far had some connection to the Minuwangoda cluster, random tests were also being conducted among the public to find out of a possible community spread which had not been reported to date.

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