Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Saturday, 7 August 2021 00:50 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya
A total of 2,794 persons tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, raising the country’s total COVID-19 detections to 324,223.
Of this, a total of 117 are of the Delta variant, as 56 Delta variant samples were detected yesterday after 94 random samples from across the island were tested.
When asked if this number was accurate, Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Hemantha Herath said it was not accurate as it could be assumed there are more than 117 patients with the Delta variant given that over 2,000 COVID-19 patients are detected each day.
“This is the number of patients detected from a sample. It is only a percentage. We can be extremely happy looking at this number because we only have 100-something patients, but this is not the situation,” he said.
The Health Promotion Bureau states that 20,052 PCR tests were carried out yesterday.
The patients detected yesterday include 2,792 persons from the New Year cluster and the Divulapitiya, Peliyagoda, Prisons and New Year clusters have expanded to 315,626 patients. This includes 219,084 persons from the New Year cluster, 82,785 persons from the Peliyagoda cluster, 7,896 persons from the Prisons cluster, and 3,059 persons from the Divulapitiya cluster.
The country’s total COVID-19 patient count also includes 6,363 Sri Lankan returnees from overseas and 328 foreigners.
The district distribution of COVID-19 patients shows 75,120 detections from Colombo, 58,239 detections from Gampaha, 34,578 detections from Kalutara, 15,773 detections from Kurunegala, and 15,390 detections from Galle.
Western Province detections during the third wave of the pandemic consist of 42,823 persons from Colombo, 39,705 persons from Gampaha, and 27,520 persons from Kalutara.
This includes the 2,674 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, of which 446 were from Gampaha, 377 were from Kalutara, and 266 were from Galle.
On Thursday, 2,655 persons from the New Year cluster, 14 persons from the Prisons cluster, and five Sri Lankan returnees from overseas tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 16,810 PCR tests and 5,557 rapid antigen tests were carried out that day.
At present, 31,095 persons are under medical care and 2,642 persons suspected of having COVID-19 are under observation. The Epidemiology Unit states that 1,942 persons left treatment centres yesterday, raising the country’s COVID-19 recoveries to 288,307.
