May 11 (AN) SL Christians held a special Eucharistic celebration to call for divine intercession against the COVID-19 pandemic to save the country and the world. Meanwhile, the govt has reinforced restrictive measures to stop the spread of the virus, further limiting freedom of movement between provinces as of midnight today, 11 May. 128,479 cases have been reported so far, with 105,611 people recovered and 827 deaths. more..

May 11 (CT) Non-provision of fertiliser to tea plantations following the Govt's decision to ban the import of chemical fertilisers could destroy tea plantations across the country, warned President of Low Country Estate Labourers' Union (LCELU), Ruwan Gallage. He said that fertilisers are essential for tea cultivation and that plantations country wide are now accustomed to chemical fertilisers. In the early days, tea was usually fertilised about twice a year. But now it is four times a year. more..

May 11 (TM) Minister Udaya Gammanpila said that those who have taken only the first dose should not have any fears or doubts about taking the second dose. Although there was an agreement to purchase the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Minister further reminded that due to the sudden increase in the number of Covid 19 patients in India, the export of vaccines from India to SL was suspended. This caused a problem for nearly 600,000 Sri Lankans who were waiting to obtain the second dose. more..

May 11 (SI) In its review of Switzerland’s record on enforced disappearances on Tuesday, the CED raised the issue of illegal adoptions of Sri Lankan children that happened a few decades ago. While acknowledging that the Alpine nation had accepted its failure to prevent the illegal adoptions, the committee said that a rich country like Switzerland should do more for these children who are now adults. more..

May 11 (CT) Medical experts have pointed out the lethargic manner in which various vaccinations being given to the public, to prevent them falling victim to COVID-19, has become a real hindrance to the successful curbing of the spread of the third wave of the pandemic here. They alleged that out of a stock of 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that had been donated by China, due to the direct intervention of Prez Rajapaksa, only 2,000 jabs had been given to the public on 9 May. more..

May 11 (CT) Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) slammed Education Minister G.L. Peiris for deciding to hold discussions on reopening schools. “The Minister makes irresponsible decisions. He doesn’t take these decisions based on any advice or recommendation given by health authorities,” charged CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin. He claimed that it is known that six departments, which come under the Education Ministry, was closed because of the pandemic. more..

May 11 (TM) Following Consumer Affairs Authority’s (CAA) recent prohibition against blending edible coconut oil with any other oil, Govt authorities have ruled out a possible price hike in pure coconut oil. State Ministry of Coconut, Kithul, and Palmyrah Cultivation Promotion and Related Industrial Product Manufacturing and Export Diversification Co-ordinating Secretary Malraj Peiris denied possibility of a price hike of coconut more..

May 11 (NR) The SJB will commence a social effort against the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking at a meeting today Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said, the programme named Vipakshaye Husma, will focus on serving the public as a responsible opposition at a time of need. Premadasa said the govt is fully responsible for the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases adding as a people-centred Opposition, the SJB will take steps to formulate a plan to ensure safety of citizens. more..

May 11 (TM) In order to make a better society, the govt has focused on stopping the importation of narcotics, reducing the demand for narcotics and rehabilitating drug addicts. A discussion prioritizing the above has been held with the presence of Minister of Youth and Sports, Namal Rajapaksa, Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekera, State Minister Dilum Amunugama, and many other officials related to this field. The main focus of this discussion was on rehabilitating drug addicts more..

May 11 (DM) Following the announcement by the Govt to impose Inter-provincial travel restrictions, the SLTB opted to limit its services from midnight yesterday, SLTB Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka said. Speaking to the media he said though the services were limited, the transport facility would be provided to continue with the essential services such as to commute Govt, private and semi-state sector workers to their day-to-day routines. "It is relevant to limit the long-distance services which more..

May 11 (SLN) In support of the acceleration of govt's COVID 19 vaccination campaign, with a view to mitigate the outbreak of Coronavirus, SL Navy in coordination with health authorities began administering the Sinopharm vaccine to govt and private sector employees engaged in essential services, at two locations in the Gampaha District today. On the instructions of Prez, inoculating of citizens with COVID-19 vaccine is being carried out as an expeditious programme. more..

May 11 (EN) The GMOA has written to the Washington-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) seeking clarification on its alarming projections for SL’s COVID-19 deaths. The GMOA has questioned the basis on which the IHME had arrived at its speculation, Minister Udaya Gammanpila said this morning (11). IHME, an idependent global health research centre at the University of Washington, had predicted more..

May 11 (DN) Court of Appeal has issued an order in the nature of writ of Certiorari quashing the rule relating completion of the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) MBBS Degree within 10 years contained in the Handbooks of three state universities. CA Justice Nissanka Karunarathne and Justice R. Gurusinghe made this order after delivering the judgment in respect of three writ petitions filed by eleven students who had registered themselves to follow MBBS Degrees at more..

May 11 (DM) Railways Department has assigned adequate train service while suspending the long distance run and continue with the inter- regional operations as usual, Deputy General Manager of the Railway Dept V.S Polwattage said. He said that plans being drawn to operate trains within Western Province tomorrrow. Accordingly, trains will run up to Aluthgama on the coastal line, up to Kochchikade on the Puttalam line, up to Ambeussa on the mainline and up to Avissawella on Kelani Valley line more..

May 11 (DM) The WHO has denied claims that Prez Rajapaksa had influenced the decision by the global body to approve the emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccine. In response to a question, the WHO said that the Emergency Use Listing (EUL) of the WHO process usually takes two to three months to complete, depending on the quality and availability of the data submitted by the vaccine developers, among other factors more..

May 11 (EN) Cabinet of ministers has cleared a proposal to borrow 200 million US dollars from the Asian Development Bank as part of a project to upgrade rural roads in Eastern, Northern, Uva and Western provinces. It is the tranche of a US$ 900 million project to upgrade 3,400 km of rural roads and 340 kilometres of national roads connected to economic centres in the provinces. The US$ 900 million Second Integrated Road Investment Program is expected to be completed by Mar 31,2027. more..

May 11 (SLE) Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha attended the inauguration ceremony of Admiral John Aquilino as the Commander of the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), presided over by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, last weekend. During his official visit to Hawaii, Ambassador Aryasinha also visited the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS). He was received by DKI APCSS Director Pete Gumataota and addressed more..

May 11 (Island) Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products Co. Ltd, the maker of Sinopharm vaccine responded to questions posed by the Expert Committee appointed, on March 17, to make recommendations for importing the Covid-19 vaccine to SL, by April, but the Committee had been presented with requested answers only on 06 May, a day before the WHO approved the use of the vaccine, AMS Prez Dr. Lakkumar Fernando more..

May 11 (DN) Leave of police personnel will be cancelled from midnight today until the 31st of May, says DIG Ajith Rohana. The announcement came during a special media briefing held this evening to brief the public of the interprovincial travel restrictions expected to be imposed from midnight today. These constraints will be in effect until the 30th of May. He said, all police officers who are residing in areas that are not under a state of isolation must to report to work. more..

May 11 (DN) SriLankan Cares, the CSR arm of SriLankan Airlines, fulfilling an acute need of the hour due to the prevailing pandemic, donated a batch of ventilators to the National Hospital, Colombo, recently. When the country witnesses a surge in the numbers of COVID-19 patients, as the main and final referral center of the island, the National Hospital is faced with the challenge of having sufficient resources in place to provide medical care for incoming patients. more..

May 11 (EN) Patients are in waiting list for intensive care and non-Covid-19 patients are dying, a breakdown of the health system is imminent unless action is taken to halt the spread, Sri Lanka Medical Association has warned. The current Coronavirus variant is spreading too fast despite lockdowns of smaller areas. A team from the SLMA had met Prez Rajapaksa on May 10 and asked for district or province wide lockdowns more..

May 11 (DM) Sri Lanka is awaiting the results of mix and match tests conducted by experts overseas. Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry said that SL will take a decision on using two different vaccine brands for the first and second jab once the results are obtained. A spokesperson at the Epidemiology Unit said that mixing and matching of vaccines is being practiced in some countries. Spokesperson said that in other countries research is being carried out on mixing 2 different brands of vaccines. more..

May 11 (DN) The proposed new educational reforms will pave the way for students to complete their university education early and become graduates in their early twenties, Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris said. He said those reforms are expected to be implemented in 2023. Necessary steps in this regard are being taken by the Education Ministry along with the other stakeholders including the Commissioner General of Examinations, he added. When the new reforms are in effect, more..

May 11 (FT) By the time this article is penned, the number of COVID-19 infections in the world is reported to be 158 million with over 3.8 million deaths. However, it is so horrible that we know very little about the virus and no one knows the day the world can get rid of this pandemic. In the viewpoints of scientists, many assumptions made on the virus are nulled and new arguments arise day by day. Although scientists are struggling to find an effective vaccine to control the virus, more..

May 11 (FT) The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe adverse effects on the SL economy, which had already encountered multiple economic setbacks even before the pandemic. These include low economic growth, fiscal and balance of payments deficits and excessive debt commitments. The lockdowns and mobility restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the pandemic have aggravated these economic problems. The economy contracted by 3.6% more..

May 11 (DM) Provinces will be sealed off this week after strict travel restrictions are to be imposed between the provinces to prevent a further spread of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said. President's Office in a statement said the travel restrictions will remain in place till May 30, but the date of when it will be implemented is yet to be announced. more..

May 11 (FT) The sudden rise in COVID-19 detections has been attributed to the clearance of a backlog of PCR samples in laboratories, but health authorities yesterday warned that this did not mean daily detections were dropping. Sri Lanka first recorded over 1,000 detections in a single day on 27 April with 1,111 detections, and on Sunday detected 2,672 COVID-19 patients within the day. However, daily detections between 28 April and 8 May have remained between 1,400 and 1,900. more..

May 11 (EN) Sri Lanka is ramping up its Coronavirus vaccination drive and is expecting three million Sinopharm doses which was newly approved by the WHO authorities said as inter-provincial travel was curbed to battle a surge in Covid-19. Sri Lanka has already started a vaccination drive in the hard-hit and densely populated Western province using Russia’s Sputnik vaccine. “Negotiations held with the Chinese authorities to obtain three million doses of Sinopharm vaccine have been successful more..

May 11 (CT) Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena raised concerns with the Canadian Envoy here to urge their Govt to immediately intervene and halt the Ontario Legislative Assembly (LA) from passing the Private Member Bill 104, on Tamil Genocide Education Week, on 6 May 2021, citing potential harm caused to the reconciliation process, peace building and the bilateral relations at large with Canada. more..

May 11 (DM) A total of 20,710 Sri Lankans have been administered with the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine as of this evening. A total of 17, 541 Sri Lankans were vaccinated today alone. Apart from Lankans, a total of 5,300 Chinese nationals have also be administered with the Sinopharm jab. Administering the Sinopharm vaccine to Sri Lankans commenced on May 08 following the approval granted by the NMRA on the same day for the emergency use of China’s Sinopharm more..

May 11 (DN) A discussion was held under the Chairmanship of the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force Basil Rajapaksa, with the participation of the relevant Ministers, Secretaries to the Ministries and Heads of Departments on the setting up of a mechanism for the continuous and efficient distribution of essential services and consumer goods to the local public, at Temple Trees on May 09. According to the report prepared by the Additional Secretary to the PM Anton Perera more..

May 11 (FT) SL’s daily COVID-19 cases exceeded 2,500 for a second straight day with health authorities stating that 2,573 persons linked to the New Year cluster tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. Divulapitiya, Peliyagoda, Prisons and New Year clusters have a cumulative patient count of 122,446. This includes 82,785 patients linked to the Peliyagoda cluster, 29,057 patients linked to the New Near cluster, 4,972 patients linked to more..

May 11 (AD) Director General of Health Services confirmed another 26 deaths that occurred during the period from 3rd to 10th May, due to Covid-19 virus infection. Accordingly, total number of deaths due to Covid-19 infection in SL is 827 by now. The victims reported include a three-month-old infant from Waththegama, who had passed away due to Covid pneumonia and Multi-organ dysfunction, and a 36-year-old youth from Hettipola. The cause of death of the latter is mentioned as more..

May 11 (DN) Police are conducting a special operation in Public transport to monitor adherence to COVID-19 rules and regulations since yesterday morning. DIG Ajith Rohana stated that public transport vehicles including buses, three-wheelers, and taxis will be monitored. He said that buses and trains can only transport passengers to the seating capacity. Three-wheelers and taxis can transport two passengers apart from the driver. Legal action will be taken against both drivers and assistants more..