COVID-19: Colombo to reopen some hotels, restaurants from Tuesday

Some hotels and restaurants will be allowed to reopen from Tuesday in Colombo, one of the hotspots for the coronavirus in Sri Lanka, as the country is set to ease the nationwide lockdown by limiting the curfew hours among other relaxations.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday said that Sri Lanka will ease the coronavirus lockdown restrictions from May 26, including limiting the curfew hours from 10.00 pm to 4.00 am.

Sri Lanka has been under a 24-hour curfew since March 20 to combat the deadly viral infection. However, there has been intermittent lifting of the curfew in selected areas which were not seen as dangerous for the spread of the deadly virus.

Colombo and Gampaha districts were identified as coronavirus hot-spots and placed under round-the-clock curfew since March 20.

The government tourist board-approved restaurants in Colombo have been given permission to operate under strict health guidelines, Ruwan Wijemuni, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council said on Monday.

He said six municipality teams of officials have been assigned to carry out inspection at these hotels to see if health regulations are adhered to.

There will be no daytime curfew in Colombo from Tuesday.

Earlier, the government allowed offices and businesses to re-open with limited staff from May 11.

The Health Ministry has said that a maximum of 100 guests are permitted at weddings and limited to less than 40 per cent of the reception hall capacity.

Limit your guests as much as possible in case if someone attended the wedding get infected it will be easy for us to find who he/she had made contact with easily in order to quarantine them, Lakshman Gamlath, Deputy Health Director General, said.

The ministry said that hugging and shaking hands must be discouraged while all guests must wear face masks at weddings. Posing for group photos is discouraged while limiting to no touch greetings at the reception.

According to the Johns Hopkins University data, the country has so far reported 1,148 infected cases with 9 deaths.