Lanka bans public events as coronavirus cases rises to 8

Sri Lanka on Saturday cancelled all public events and gatherings for two weeks as the number of coronavirus cases in the country rose to eight, the health minister said.

Director General of Health Services Dr Anil Jasinghe said two more cases of COVID-19 were identified on Saturday.

Health Minister Pavithra Wannirachchi said that all public events stand cancelled for a period of two weeks as a measure to help the authorities with curbing the spread of the virus.

"We have decided to cancel all public events and gatherings for two weeks," Wanniarachchi told reporters.

The ministry of culture said all cinemas would remain shut until further notice.

On Friday, the Sri Lankan government announced that travellers from a number of European capitals would not be allowed to enter the country in view of the growing threat.

"They will not be allowed if they had visited the designated countries during the last two weeks," a senior Colombo international airport official said.

France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria are included in the list.

At least four Polish nationals, who had arrived at the airport to leave the country, were taken to hospital for observations, authorities said.

The prison authorities said that all inmates will be limited to one visitor during the visit hours. The schools and universities remain closed.

The deadly novel coronavirus that first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year has claimed over 5,000 lives and infected more than 134,000 people across 110 countries and territories, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) describing the outbreak a pandemic on Wednesday.