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144 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for Saturday (11), said the Department of Government Information. The total number of fatalities increased to 11,296.

According to the data released by the Department of Government Information, the latest victims include 77 males and 67 females.

As many as 122 deaths were reported among the elderly people aged above 60 years.

In addition, 21 individuals aged between 30-59 years and one female below 30 years have also succumbed to the virus infection.

A total of 175 more COVID-19 related deaths that occurred yesterday (08) were confirmed by the Director-General of Health Services today pushing the death toll to 10,864.

According to the Government Information Department, 79 females and 96 males are among the deceased.

A total of 139 people who are above 60 years of age are among the deceased while 35 of them are between 30 and 59 years of age.

One death has been reported below 30 years of age.

COVID death toll in Sri Lanka passed the 11,000 mark with 157 deaths confirmed for Friday (10).

Total Fatalities: 11,152

According to the Government Information Department, 87 females and 70 males are among the deceased.

A total of 130 people who are above 60 years of age are among the deceased while 23 of them are between 30 and 59 years of age.

Four deaths have been reported below 30 years of age.

Sri Lanka imposed a 100% cash margin when opening letters of credit for 623 items.

These items range from mobile phones, chocolates, cereal, and a variety of clothing.

CBSL had taken the decision to discourage imports as the country faced foreign exchange shortages as large volumes of money were printed.

Banks have also been barred from giving credit for importers to meet the margins.

Licensed Commercial Banks “shall not grant any advances to their customers for the purpose of enabling such customers to meet the minimum cash margin deposit,” said the Central Bank.

A direction issued to licensed commercial banks by the Central Bank said the margin requirement was effective from September 08th.

The CBSL statement mentioned 623 items through customs codes including, chocolates, spaghetti, apple juice, wine, oats, soya milk, dairy goods, lipsticks, carpets, coats anoraks, and electronic goods.

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, decided to impose a 100% cash margin deposit requirement against the importation of selected goods of non-essential/non-urgent nature made under Letters of Credit and Documents against Acceptance terms with Licensed Commercial Banks and National Savings Bank, with immediate effect, said the statement.

The present lockdown will be of no use if public movement are properly curtailed, Public Health Inspectors Union (PHIU) claimed.

PHIU Head Upul Rohana said people were behaving as if there is no lockdown or quarantine curfew in the country.

“It's in fact futile to extend the curfew because it is apparent that the ideal results expected of a lockdown cannot be achieved with the prevailing lockdown in the country,” he pointed out.

“We do admit the fact that the economic activities should be maintained; however, what we find so tricky is that every other activities are being carried out under the guise of maintaining the economy," the PHI Head emphasised.

He said if the authorities pay no attention to this, the situation would be more detrimental in the future with more contagious and lethal coronavirus variants.

Meanwhile, Deputy Director General of Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said neither the PHIs nor other health officials can curtail the movement of people during the lockdown.

“People themselves will have to be responsible and most importantly, the law enforcement authorities should make sure the quarantine curfew is properly observed by the general public.

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185 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for Tuesday (7), said the Director General of Health Services. Accordingly, the total number of deaths in Sri Lanka increased to 10,689.

According to the data released by the Department of Government Information, the latest victims include 102 males and 83 females.

As many as 140 deaths were reported among elderly people who are aged above 60 years.

In addition, 44 individuals aged between 30-59 years and 01 below 30 years have also succumbed to the virus infection.

131 COVID-19 deaths confirmed for Thursday (9). The total number of fatalities increased to 10,995.

According to the Government Information Department, 58 females and 73 males are among the deceased.

A total of 110 people who are above 60 years of age are among the deceased while 20 of them are between 30 and 59 years of age.

One death has been reported below 30 years of age.

Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando has defended a decision to seek the further relaxation of Covid guidelines for travellers.

In a letter sent to the Director General of Health Asela Gunawardena, the Chairperson of Sri Lanka Tourism has also requested that the mandatory Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for fully vaccinated flight crew be removed.

Fernando sent the letter from Russia where she is on a visit to promote Sri Lanka for Russian tourists.

In the letter to Asela Gunawardena, Fernando has requested to remove the requirement of PCR tests 72-hours before boarding the flight for fully vaccinated passengers.

She has also requested the removal of PCR tests for children below the age of 12 in line with EU regulations.

Fernando has also requested Gunawardena to allow on-arrival rapid tests for fully vaccinated passengers on the tourist route and to be conducted at the airport.

Her letter drew strong criticism on social media saying if implemented it could pose a threat to airline crew and also the country. “Sri Lanka tourism has always been responsible. When health permitted arrivals from India, tourism route was opened for only fully vaccinated. The requests made are based on best practice,” Kimarli Fernando told Daily Mirror.

She also said that the global health pandemic should not be politicized and that Sri Lankan’s successful vaccination program and gradual changes made to protocols in line with global best practices will support the economy through December winter bookings.

Prof. W.A. Lakshman this afternoon announced his resignation from the post of Central Bank Governor with effect from September 14.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Prof. Lakshamn to the post in December 2019.

Prof. Lakshaman said it was his intention to resign on his 80th birthday. But he is retiring on September 14, six weeks ahead of the intended time.

The outgoing Governor said during his tenure he had not done anything “against his conscience” and steered Sri Lanka towards the ideology that he believed in.

Former Central Bank Governor and current junior finance minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal is widely expected to replace Prof. Lakshman.

The Head of Sri Lanka’s Catholic Church His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has slammed the government for attempting to undermine the truth.

He condemned the government’s move to go to the international community to solve issues, especially about the 2019 April 21st Terror Attacks.

“This is a very secret plan that is being hatched by the government to try to undermine the truth, and to try to get international sympathy for their inactions, for trying to hide the facts, for trying to manipulate the entire event surrounding the Easter attacks,” he told a press briefing in Colombo.

He said, “We condemn unequivocally this attempt of the government to try to go to the international community and try to fool them with their sweet talk.”

His Eminence also slammed the government for attempting to seek an audience with His Holiness, the Pope, and mislead him.

The Catholic Church has been requesting transparent and independent investigations that are not politically motivated, over the Easter Sunday attacks, he said.

“The government has been pushing us from pillar to post. The Former Attorney General Mr. Dappula De Livera made a statement to a News 1st journalist Zulfick Farzan that this was a grand conspiracy,” he said.

The Cardinal went on to note that the Easter Attacks is a kind of a project, that is a grand conspiracy because a rag-tag band of 7 or 8 suicide bombers cannot do such a thing.

“They needed brainwashing over a long time, they need technology to find and make the bombs, they needed the conviction to commit suicide. All of this requires time and support. So there is somebody who is behind all of this. We want to know who that is,” stressed his eminence noting it is their right to know who that is.

“269 people were murdered in cold blood. Their body parts were hanging from the rafters of the roof of the church. Blood was splattered everywhere. Families were completely broken. Some people are still in wheelchairs and on beds. Permanently disabled. This was a terrible disaster. 47 foreigners from 14 countries were killed. I want to ask the international community to please defend your citizens who died here. The 14 countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, Saudi Arabia, China. Those governments must rise up to this and call upon our government to do a transparent and independent investigation,” he told reporters.

He called on the foreign governments to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government for a thorough investigation on the 2019 terror attacks and not to defend the Sri Lankan government on its ‘nefarious’ plan.

Speaking further, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said the fact that the Army Directorate of Military Intelligence having links with Zahran Hashim’s group, should be investigated.

“We feel like this is a tailor-made kind of investigation just to put a blame on someone and finish it off,” he said.

“There are indications in the Presidential Commission report that some people willfully prevented this incident from coming out and willfully did not do their duty to prevent it from happening. This government is trying to protect them because it is their interests,” he added.

“Why is the government trying to protect some people? Is the government part of the conspiracy? We have to deduce from that fact that the government is part of the conspiracy also. That they are trying to protect some people and not letting the conspiracy come out,” said the Head of the Catholic Church.

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The ongoing island-wide quarantine curfew orders will stay in effect for another week, the Cabinet Spokesman, Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella announced today.

Accordingly, the restrictions will be effective until 4.00 a.m. on September 21 (Tuesday).

The decision to further extend the quarantine curfew was taken during the meeting of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Control convened under the patronage of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning (Sep. 10).

“With COVID-19 figures steadily declining, the government is confident that Sri Lanka will once again be able to reopen without risk,” the health minister said in a tweet.

He appealed to the members of the public to adhere to health regulations and to use the locked-down period to get themselves vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

A ten-day island-wide quarantine curfew was first imposed on August 20, however, the restrictions were rolled over twice in a bid to mitigate the spread of the virus and to ramp up the vaccination process.

184 COVID-19 deaths were confirmed for Monday (6), said the Director-General of Health Services on Tuesday. Total fatalities in Sri Lanka increased to 10,504.

According to the figures reported by the Department of Government Information today (07), the victims include 97 males and 87 females while four of the deceased, including 1 female, are below the age of 30.

Forty-six of the Covid-19 deaths are individuals between the ages of 30-59 and the remaining 134 are persons aged 60 and above.