World News | Sri Lanka Cancels Parliament Sessions Due to Spike in COVID-19 Cases

Colombo, Oct 29 (PTI) Sri Lanka has cancelled next week's Parliament sessions following a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases in capital Colombo and increased risk of community-level transmission, officials said on Thursday.

Assistant Secretary General, Parliament, Neil Iddawela said next week's sessions would be limited to just four hours on November 3.

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As per the original schedule, Parliament was to be convened on four days next week.

Parliament offices were closed for two days this week as sanitisation works were taken up.

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Parliament officials said they estimated the COVID-19 situation to improve by mid-November when the government's 2021 budget was to be presented on November 17.

Sri Lanka has recorded a major spike in cases since October 4 after two virus clusters were identified -- a garment export factory in Minuwangoda, Western Province and a wholesale fish market in Peliyagoda, a suburban area of Colombo.

So far, the island nation has recorded 9,619 coronavirus cases with 19 deaths.

Curfews have been imposed in over 60 different locations across the country.

Colombo district will be under a continuous 72-hour curfew from Thursday midnight.

The health authorities have said that despite the spike in cases, community-level transmission was not happening.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)