Colombo, February 13 (Daily Mirror) – A senior health official linked to the Health Ministry told the Daily Mirror that the high daily COVID-19 figures in recent days was due to the backlog of tests at laboratories which had now been cleared but the main reason was this new variant which had already been detected in several areas.
The transmission rate of this new variant is extremely high and this is the same variant which caused havoc in the UK last month.
In recent days, Sri Lanka has been recording an average of 800 to 900 new patients a day but with the rapid spread of this new variant, the numbers are expected to rise considerably in the coming weeks.
According to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with the new variant now rapidly spreading across the globe, people have been advised to wear two masks – a surgical mask or a N95 and a tight cloth mask on top of it to firmly hold the mask in place. Health officials here have also advised people to wear two masks as this new variant was transmitted more easily than what was detected last year. Officials say this new variant had entered the country through a foreign source and investigations were ongoing to confirm this. (Jamila Husain)
