Sri Lanka reports highest daily Covid deaths

On Friday, the Health Minister reported 101 new fatalities, reports Xinhua news agency. 

Meanwhile, a total of 216,134 confirmed cases have been reported in the country to date, with over 2,600 new patients detected in the past 24 hours. 

The active patient count is 31,986, the Ministry said. 

Sri Lanka is presently in the midst of a third wave of the pandemic, and the country is under a strict nationwide travel restriction which is expected to be lifted on June 14. 

Within the past two months, over 100,000 new infections have been reported as the highly contagious Delta and Alpha variants of Covid-19 were detected in several areas, health officials said. 

With the aim to bring down the infection rate, the government said it is planning to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of its population by August or September this year.