Apr 18 (DM) The GMOA has written to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa calling him to request technical support from Russia to initiate the much-needed production and to scale up testing capacity in Sri Lanka. It said as Sri Lanka was now exploring our strategy, enhancing our national capacity for testing was a crucial step. “Even after the current lockdown phase, until we find a vaccination, we will have to maintain our testing strategy to identify and isolate cases,” the GMOA said. more..

Apr 18 (EN) Calling for a sound public transportation plan in view of a proposed reopening of schools and universities, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) made a series of recommendations to the govt today. Formulated by the CCC’s Sub Committee on Passenger Transport of the National Agenda Committee (NAC) of Logistics and Transport, the proposal discusses how to manage passenger transport safely as the govt ponders exit strategies from the current curfew status. more..

Apr 18 (AD) With corporate and individual donations as well as direct donations, the COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund’s balance has now surpassed Rs. 737 million. The COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund was set up by Prez Rajapaksa on March 23. Wijaya Group of Companies and CIB Trading Company handed over a donation of Rs. 15 million to Prez today (17), while Gem Dealers and Miners Association more..

Apr 18 (DN) With the detection of the 59-year-old woman with Covid-19 on April 15th, within a matter of a few hours the intelligence services were able to track the first tier of persons whom she had interacted with. Her son is a manufacturer of face masks and he sells them to shops. Hence, the intelligence services tracked the shops that he had visited to supply masks. There were 13 people in the first tier who had interacted with the positive person and they were sent to the quarantine centre more..

Apr 18 (AD) The highest number of COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka has been identified in the Colombo District, according to the Ministry of Health. Accordingly, a total of 55 cases have been confirmed in the Colombo District. In the meantime, Kalutara District has the second-highest number of infections with 45 coronavirus patients and Puttalam District has confirmed 35 cases. 28 cases of COVID-19 are reported in Gampaha District and 16 infections in Jaffna District. more..

Apr 18 (NR) Minister Mahinda Amaraweera says measures are being taken to deploy 5,000 SLTB buses and 400 trains for public transport services following the 20th of April. He said the measures are being taken under the govt’s decision to resume suspended activity at state sector institutions from Monday onward, under several phases. Minister has instructed officials to ensure that all public transport operates more..

Apr 18 (EN) Former MP Eran Wickramaratne is saying that the govt has started suppressing criticism about the shortcomings in the fight against COVID-19. He said that some journalists and social media activists have been arrested for criticising and expressing their opinion speaking about the govt. “By imprisoning the journalists they are trying to create fear among the other journalists as well,” he added. Also, he said the opposition will give its fullest support to the govt to more..

Apr 18 (AD) Clinics at hospitals, which came to a halt due to the local outbreak of the pandemic will continue, but with certain restrictions, when the ongoing curfew is relaxed, says Dr. Anil Jasinghe. However, special measures will be taken to carry out children’s clinics and the Circular on the matter has already been issued, he said further. Only one person, preferably the mother, is encouraged to accompany the child to the clinic, in order to minimize number of people coming to clinic more..

Apr 18 (DM) A Sri Lankan airlines special charter flight which recently traveled between London and Shanghai, carrying Chinese passengers, was purely a commercial flight which operated following a request made to Sri Lankan by the Chinese authorities to help transport its citizens back home before UK takes steps to shut down the Heathrow Airport amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The matter had created controversy more..

Apr 18 (AD) A total of 1,392 individuals have been arrested over curfew violations during the last 24 hours ending from 6 am today (18). In the meantime, 381 vehicles were also taken into custody during this period. A total of 31,680 persons were placed under arrest since March 20 for violating the curfew and 8,151 vehicles have been seized. Sri Lanka Police has warned of strict legal action against people caught violating the countrywide curfew. They will be immediately arrested, more..

Apr 18 (SLN) Nine (09) more individuals who completed their quarantine period at the quarantine centre established at Boossa Naval Base, left for their homes today (18). Upon completion of weeks-long quarantine process, these 09 Sri Lankans left for their homes today and they were tested for COVID-19 by a PCR test. The Quarantine Certificate that authenticates the successful completion of quarantine process was handed over to them by Commanding Officer of SLNS Nipuna. more..

Apr 18 (AD) Govt has decided to relax the ongoing curfew, which was imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19, in several districts and police areas, says the PMD. Accordingly, the curfew in all districts except Colombo, Kalutara, Gampaha, Kegalle, Kandy, Puttalam and Ampara districts, will be lifted at 5 am on Monday (20) and re-imposed at 8 pm on the same day. Curfew in these districts will be in force from 8 pm to 5 am every day more..

Apr 18 (SLN) SL Navy seized a lorry which was transporting a stock of agro-chemicals with essential food items, at the naval roadblock at Poonewa in Medawachchiya today. Naval personnel attached to the North Central Naval Command had intercepted a suspicious lorry at the naval roadblock at Poonewa in Medawachchiya today. During further search, naval personnel managed to find 160 packets each containing 24 bottles of agro-chemicals which had been unsafely stored with essential food more..

Apr 18 (DM) A 50-year old woman has been arrested by the CID on charges of posting false and misleading content about COVID-19 on social media. Police said the woman, a resident of Nalla, Divuldeniya was arrested on Thursday. The suspect woman to be produced in the Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court today. Meanwhile, the police said including the arrest of this woman, the CID has arrested a total of 17 individuals for posting false and misleading content on social media. more..

Apr 18 (Island) Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), constituent of Sajith Premadasa-led Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) has requested the Chairman and Members of the Election Commission not to hold parliamentary polls, amidst the coronavirus epidemic. The following is the text of the letter signed by Secretary, SLMC, M Nizam Kariapper sent to the EC: “You have, by Gazette Extraordinary bearing Number 2167/19 and more..

Apr 18 (EN) Withdrawal symptoms has made five inmates of a quarantine camp in SL to flee, forcing military authorities to bring doctors and to help them cope and help them kick the habit. Epidemiological sleuths in military found several contacts of a case in Suduwella, Ja-Ela, north of Ja-Ela. Later more contacts and were located in an underserved area close to Colombo where one person was infected, leading to dozens living nearby to be taken for quarantine and the area locked down. more..

Apr 18 (AD) Four more cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been found as of 4 pm today (18) bringing Sri Lanka’s confirmed cases tally to 248. Three of these patients were identified from the quarantine centre at Oluvil, says the Ministry of Health. The other COVID-19 case is a person who had been in self-isolation in Rambukkana. In the meantime, the total number of coronavirus recoveries in the country stands at 77. Currently, 164 active cases are under medical care more..

Apr 18 (AD) The Election Commission has no authority to postpone the General Election without fixing an alternate date, says PM Mahinda Rajapaksa. In a statement on the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponed parliamentary election, PM said that under Section 24(3) of the Parliamentary Elections Act No: 1 of 1981, the Election Commission is required to announce an alternate date for the election more..

Apr 18 (EN) SL’s property developers have asked President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to start work which had been halted to stop Coronavirus and also sought clarity on import controls proposed as the central bank injected liquidity de-stabilizing the rupee. The Condominium Developers Association of Sri Lanka (CDASL) asked President to allow the commencement of Construction Projects as soon as practically possible and include property firms among those eligible to get credit relief. more..

Apr 18 (EN) Sri Lanka’s tea farms will be able to pay salaries to workers in April since tea is being plucked and prices have also risen in at auctions, but the sector is operating at 60% capacity, an industry official said. “Due to the unexpected panic buying in last month there is an unexpected double digit growth in the revenue in tea industry,” Dilhan Fernando , chief executive of Dilmah Tea told an online forum organized by Advocata Institute, a Colombo-based think tank. more..

Apr 18 (AD) The special service to provide solutions for electrical systems and plumbing issues of households during the curfew period in the Western Province will be extended to other districts, says the Public Utilities Commission of SL (PUCSL). This service was jointly implemented by SL Police, National Water Supply & Drainage Board (NWS&DB), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Lanka Electricity Company Ltd (LECO) & PUCSL. more..

Apr 19 (CT) The coronavirus is come. We have rightly fled to the safety of our homes. This scorched-earth policy of social distancing leaves few bodies for the virus to feed on. Testing and tracing is isolating the cells that remain. While the virus may be annihilated in the coming months, the fever it has brought to our economies and body-politic may last much longer. The economy – weakened by the failure to sustain the reforming spirit of the 1978-2004 era and the indulgence of risky more..

Apr 19 (Island) The BBC recently released an Easter bombing anniversary documentary titled Terror in Paradise which probably attracted tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of global viewers. The highly professionally produced feature depended largely on CCTV footage of what happened in Colombo and elsewhere on Apr 21, 2019, when a group of fanatics targeted three catholic churches and four hotels killing at least 279 and injuring over 593 people, some of whom were maimed for life. more..

Apr 19 (ST) The govt will open both BIA and MRIA to pick up non-SL passengers and for crew rest, a group of envoys were assured on Thursday. The move follows a meeting by these diplomats with Special Envoy Basil Rajapaksa who heads the 44-member Presidential Task Force. It was the result of a letter Australian HC David Jhon Holly wrote to Mr Rajapaksa. Apart from Mr. Holly, the meeting was attended by Alaina Teplitz more..

Apr 19 (CT) "Better to get Corona than see our harvest rot because of curfew and no buyers” said a desperate farmer at the shuttered Dambulla wholesale market recently in an interview with News First. His statement made clear that there is no tradeoff between lives and livelihoods, and you cannot have one without the other. A balance must be found to protect and sustain life, particularly, in developing countries where large segments of the population live under poverty line on daily more..

Apr 19 (ST) Typically, in Sri Lanka, even when there is a national calamity, it is politics that seems to dominate the national agenda. In more recent years, when there was imminent Indian military adventurism into Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (1987), certain leaders of the then Govt scuttled a joint statement from Parliament saying it would give the Opposition at the time some political leverage. When the tsunami ravaged the country (2004), more..

Apr 19 (CT) The world plunged into silence, isolation and lockdown for the first time in modern history due to a particular novel corona virus known as the COVID-19 also known as the Wuhan virus which killed more than 128,886 people including high-profile personalities, infected more than 2,006,513 including leaders and important political figures. The sheer scale of it is unnerving because it has shut down almost all global more..

Apr 19 (CT) While all the other world leaders were fighting a tight battle to contain the fast spread of the coronavirus pandemic, US President Donald Trump has been engaged in a lone battle against the WHO. His contention with the world health watchdog came to a head last week, when he announced that the US would cut funds to the WHO for a period of 60 to 90 days, pending review. President Trump's main criticism of the WHO stems from his belief that the world body has been partial towards China, more..

Apr 19 (ST) My dear citizens of Paradise, I thought I must write to you again after a few weeks because this week will mark the first anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks on Easter Sunday last year that left hundreds of people dead and many others wondering what had become of our land after a decade of relative peace and stability. One year later, even our commemoration of that event is forced to be on a low key because we – and indeed, the rest of the world – are in the midst of more..

Apr 19 (Island) The global total of Covid-19 cases is past the two million mark and the death total is one and a half lakhs. The IMF is calling the economic fallout of the coronavirus, the Great Lockdown, after the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and a crisis like no other. South Asia has so far escaped the size and severity of the epidemic that have devastated countries east and west. It is too early to be optimistic because there is a lot more unknown than known about virus spread in South Asia. more..

Apr 19 (Island) COVID-19 pandemic has changed the whole economic landscape at national and international level, and agriculture is no exception. Economic recession is inevitable and we have already got red alerts about the future. Non-essential imports have been banned or restricted. Many avenues available for export earnings have closed affecting local industries and reducing foreign exchange earnings. “We anticipate serious negative impacts on global and national economy more..

Apr 19 (CT) Due to the imposition of curfew, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year 2020 had to be celebrated in solitary comfort of their homes. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa also remained in his residence in Mirihana during this period. At the dawn of the New Year, Rajapaksa contacted his siblings, the Minister Chamal Rajapaksa and the PM, Mahinda Rajapaksa & extended his New year wishes. more..

Apr 19 (Island) I have been fortunate to have watched two world cup finals at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Australia and Wankhede in India in addition to several matches at Lords and Oval in England and SCG in Australia. However, my fondest and most precious memory as a spectator was the encounter between West Indies and Ceylon played at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo, then known simply as Oval. The 3-day match was played between 21-23 Jan 1967. more..

Apr 19 (SO) The country has been under a curfew for nearly a month, necessitated by the need to protect the populace from the coronavirus pandemic, which has now caused more than 2.2 million infections and 150,000 deaths worldwide. Thanks to the swift measures spearheaded by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka has been spared the agony that many developed countries are now facing. The case numbers in Sri Lanka are still under 250, more..

Apr 19 (EN) V Udayaraj, a projects officer at a private company based in Peliyagoda is surrounded by people in his neighbourhood every time steps out of his home. He told EconomyNext that there are about 1,500 families living in the Dutugemunu Mawatha area in Peliyagoda in his neighbourhood and many are hard-pressed to put food on the table because they have no work. “Of them, around 500 families more..

Apr 19 (CT) There is a possibility the Dialog Inter School League Rugby C'ship and President's Trophy Knockout C'ship could be cancelled due to the coronavirus. The league was temporarily halted last month. Organisers had planned to finish the two tournaments before the A/L Exam, but now they are targeting the end of the year. Organisers are still uncertain whether it would be possible to conduct the tournament even at the end of the year considering the nature of the pandemic. more..

Apr 19 (SO) The prevailing Covid-19 epidemic continues to confine the masses to their homes, not only in Sri Lanka but in almost all other countries. The Coronavirus brought activities in most parts of the world to a standstill. When it came to sports, all sports activities were either cancelled or postponed and well over one hundred and fifty thousand lives have been lost so far. Among the global sports events postponed were the showpiece of world sport – the Olympic Games. more..

Apr 19 (ST) The Football Federation of Sri Lanka (FFSL) is in talks with its foreign head coach Amir Alagic to reduce his exorbitant salary because of the crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, which has dented their ambitious development plans. However, FFSL President Anura de Silva is keen to retain the services of the Bosnian-born Australian by appointing him as Technical Director of the federation. more..

Apr 19 (SO) Sri Lanka’s only medal winning para athlete Priyantha Herath has been jaded by the postponement of the Paralympic Games by one year fully convinced that the move is unfavourable to him. Herath is now 34 years old and unless he can maintain his fitness levels for one more year his ambition of finishing off his athletic career with a gold medal would fall apart. Herath brought home a bronze medal from the Rio Paralympics making him the only para athlete to bring honour to SL. more..