President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday requested all public servants to return to duty from Monday (2 August), consequent to rapid vaccination of people against the COVID pandemic. 

A statement from the President’s office said a large percentage of the population that needed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 had now been vaccinated, covering all districts in Sri Lanka. 

Since the majority of public servants have also been vaccinated, priority should be given to restore normalcy in the public service sector. 

Therefore, Secretary to the President P.B. Jayasundera had informed the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Services, Provincial Councils and Local Government J.J. Rathnasiri, that all public servants be called to duty as usual, starting Monday, in accordance with COVID-19 health guidelines.

The Secretary to the President had also informed to revoke all circulars with regard to working from home and calling for a limited number of staff members on a rotation basis, which were earlier issued to facilitate the control of COVID. 

The Presidential move comes despite COVID-19 detections on Thursday exceeding 2,000 for the first time since 23 June.

Yesterday 2,455 more COVID-19 patients were detected bringing the cumulative tally to 306,657, of whom over 70,000 from the Colombo District. Around 27,121 persons are currently under medical care whilst recoveries have risen to over 275,200.

The increase in COVID-19 patients had been attributed, at least in part, to the spread of the Delta variant in the country. The country’s COVID-19 death toll rose to 4,380 with the confirmation of 56 COVID-19 deaths yesterday. The previous two days the tally was over 60 each. 

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