COLOMBO: Sri Lanka may end its month-long lockdown soon if the high-powered committee meant to decide on COVID-19 related matters in the country recommends it during a meeting later this week, the panel's head General Shavendra Silva said on Wednesday.
The island nation went into a lockdown on August 20 due to the sudden rise in coronavirus infections.
Silva, who is also the Sri Lankan Army chief, said that a recommendation on how to reopen the country under strict lockdown would be made to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa after the meeting of the committee on Friday.
"The recommendations on how to reopen the country under strict conditions would be made to the President this week, most likely that the lockdown would be lifted depending on those recommendations," Silva said.
Dr Sudarshani Fernandopulle, Sri Lanka's minister for COVID prevention, said the lockdown over the past month had caused slowing down on the number of infections and deaths.
"The lockdown has helped to ease the situation despite the criticisms leveled," she said.
However, Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) has contradicted the minister's statement, saying the cases are still on rise.
"As a country, we haven't left the danger zone yet. We still find over 2,000 new cases a day, which means there may be at least 6,000 cases present in the community," Dr Padma Gunaratne from the SLMA said.
"We're still in the red zone. This is why it's important that both the public and the government pay close attention to this and take every measure to prevent another wave," she said.
Sri Lanka has been experiencing the third wave since mid April.
The number of deaths which stood at just 678 on April 30 is now close to 12,000.