Sri Lanka announces blanket ban on all incoming flights and vessels

As the number of infected continues to rise steeply in the island nation, the PM Rajapaksa-led government enforces a ban on all incoming traffic, including China

New Delhi: With 50 citizens having contracted the novel coronavirus infection, the Sri Lankan government on Tuesday, banned entry to all passenger flights and ships into the island country.

The blanket decision was announced after the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa-led government after it reportedly came under heavy criticism recently for not imposing any visa ban on China.

According to the President Media Division (PMD) said the ban will be with immediate effect. The ban has been enforced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus across the nation. The PMD added that all departure flights from Sri Lanka will continue to operate as usual.

The Sri Lankan government on 13 March had announced a two-week-long ban on European nationals, coming from COVID-19 hit nations. However, the PM Rajapaksa government left China out from the levied travel restrictions, which was reported by the News21. 

The ban on flights and vessels came after the government imposed a nationwide curfew on its citizens to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The curfew was implemented in the largest urban areas starting from 18 March and expanded nationwide from 20 March. 

Officials claimed that they will continue to run the curfew till 23 March, and if required could even stretch it to 31 March. “The number of infected in the country is 50. The first report of a positive case came on 11 March 2020, with most of those infected have been in Italy, Iran, Qatar or India. Thus, crowd-control measures and isolations will be aggressively implemented,” a senior official told the News21 on phone.

There was No screening of people who entered in the first week of March. In another reported major lapse by the government, authorities have failed to check on passengers who entered the nation before the first week of March.

The list of passengers, possibly carriers of the virus, also includes people who had returned from Italy, South Korea and Iran. Not only did the government overlooked their medical scanning, but now is having a hard time locating them, as they are openly exposing themselves with the rest of the population. 

As per numbers cited by the Government Medical Officers Association over 1,000 people in Negombo, Chilaw, and Wennappuwa came to Sri Lanka from Italy.