Colombo, Aug 7 (PTI) The Sri Lankan government on Saturday warned its people to stay indoors to curb the highly transmissible delta variant of coronavirus that is rapidly spreading across the country.

The warning came as the country recorded its 5,000th death from the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday. In the recent weeks, the number of coronavirus cases and the deaths have seen a remarkable increase and the health authorities are grappling with an overload of cases at hospitals.

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“The highly transmissible delta variant of coronavirus is rapidly spreading across Sri Lanka like in many other countries. Every person is at risk of getting infected,” a statement released by the government said.

Around 1.5 per cent of the persons infected with the delta variant would eventually die. A majority of the infected have to be treated in intensive care, it said.

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Despite a record number of deaths being recorded almost daily, the government on Friday refused to announce a lockdown. However, the travel restrictions imposed since early May would continue.

The health sector has been warning of the impending crisis situation with the sector reaching its tipping point.

“An unusual increase in COVID-19 cases is seen in every district of the country and hospitals will run out of capacity leading to a collapse of the health service in two weeks' time if the spread is not contained,” Public Health Inspectors (PHI) spokesman Upul Rohana said.

“The ground situation right now is very dangerous and sad,” he said.

Sri Lanka, which has recorded over 3 lakh COVID-19 cases, experienced its third wave in mid-April.

(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)