The results of 338 tests conducted on the inmates and staff at the Kandakadu center were received Friday morning and 196 were found positive. Earlier, 56 inmates and a counsellor at the center were tested positive yesterday in first instance of community transmission after a gap of two months in the country.
Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jaisinghe has said that more PCR tests are already being conducted and there is a possibility of more COVID-19 infections. He said the quarantine process and contact tracing have been initiated in order to prevent transmission of the virus to the society.
The development has come as a setback to Sri Lanka, which has been successful in contacting the COVID spread so far. Around two thousand people from a total of 2100 infections had already recovered before the fresh cases surfaced from the center. Sri Lanka has not seen any community case for over two months and normal life is fast returning to normalcy with schools and universities beginning to open in phases. The country has seen 11 deaths due to COVID so far.