27 coronavirus clusters in Sri Lanka curbed: official

Sri Lankan authorities on Friday said that out of the 31 main coronavirus clusters, 27 have been totally curbed, including a naval base that became the biggest cluster of the COVID-19, which has infected over 600 people in the country.

Sri Lanka currently has 665 confirmed cases of which over 140 have completely recovered, officials said, adding that 16 more positive cases were reported on Thursday which included 9 more Naval personnel.

"The health officials have identified some 31 clusters. Out of those 27 have been totally curbed. Even among the four which are active, three of them are being slowly tackled," Deputy Inspector General of Police Ajith Rohana on Friday said.

He said that according to the government intelligence service information, the total number of coronavirus patients have been reported from 31 clusters, since the first infection was reported in Sri Lanka on March 11.

Rohana said the issue was made complicated by a group of drug addicts in a spot at a northern Colombo suburb.

"They kept on spreading to some places in the city," Rohana added.

He said that the cluster from Suduwella in Ja-Ela was a special one and that drug addicts were the main reason for the spread of the virus in that cluster, The Daily Mirror reported.

Sri Lankan Navy personnel got infected when they started an operation to hunt a group of drug addicts and send them to quarantine. Some 226 Navy and 4 Army soldiers were infected from them.

One Navy detachment was completely shut following the discovery of the infected Naval personnel.

Sri Lanka is currently on a total lockdown with an all island curfew being imposed till May 4. Officials are expected to relax lockdown rules from May 4 in order to revive the economic activities.

Meanwhile, Police have so far arrested 42,365 individuals and 11,000 vehicles for curfew violations and within the last 24 hours about 500 people have been arrested for curfew violations across the country.

"In the past six hours, 264 persons have been arrested in the Western Province and Puttalam District," Rohana said.