COVID-19: Sri Lanka to lift travel curbs from tomorrow against expert advice

Despite the removal of travel restrictions, the travel curbs between provinces will continue to be enforced, the National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) was quoted by Colombo Page.

The loss to the government exchequer during the travel restrictions was more than Rs 450 billion, said the country’s State Minister of Finance Ajith Nivard Cabraal.

The Sri Lankan government had imposed travel restrictions on May 21 on the advice of health experts.

Sharply reacting to the latest announcement, Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) in a letter to the country’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa requested him not to lift the currently imposed travel restrictions on Monday (June 21).

Advising against lifting the lockdown even for a few days, the SLMA urged the President to continue with the current lockdown measures uninterrupted, at this crucial moment of time.

“The gains that have been made during the lockdown of the last three weeks will then be sacrificed, and it will take all that much longer and a tremendous effort on the part of all stakeholders, to return us even to this level of control again,” the SLMA letter read.

Sri Lanka has so far reported over 237,661 COVID-19 cases and 2,534 fatalities.