News
Two women die of COVID-19
View(s):With two more deaths from COVID-19 taking place this week, the first women to succumb to the illness, the Sunday Times sought an insight into the week’s event from the Health Ministry’s Chief Epidemiologist, Dr. Sudath Samaraweera.
“Yes, there was one patient who got re-infected. He was ready for discharge but when the final test was done it showed that he was COVID-19 positive,” said Dr. Samaraweera, when asked about this person from Ja-ela.
He said that this could be due to: the virus being transmitted through the patient again (this is not possible as he received treatment after being in quarantine and testing positive) or there has been a rare occurrence, which is ‘dead virus reactivation’. This means that even though the virus has been killed in this person’s body, it has got reactivated.
With regard to the positive cases detected from Rajagiriya and Kolonnawa, Dr. Samaraweera said that it is being investigated how they got infected. After contact tracing, 29 people from Rajagiriya and 27 from Kolonnawa have been sent to quarantine centres and so far no one from this group has been detected with the infection.
Meanwhile, the 8th death from COVID-19 was a 72-year-old woman from Polpithigama, Kurunegala, who was reported to have had kidney ailments. She died on May 4 while being treated at the Homagama Base Hospital and was cremated at the Kotikawatta cemetery the same day.
The 9th death on May 5 was a 52-year-old woman from Modera, Colombo 15. She too had been admitted to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, with fever on May 4, transferred to the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (NIID) on being tested positive and died at the NIID.
Timeline
May 2 – 15 cases were reported with 12 being navy personnel and 3 other contacts of navy personnel from Mihintale. Of the 12 navy personnel, 2 were from outside the camp who had been on leave.
May 3 – 13 cases were reported with 11 cases being navy personnel and 2 close contacts of navy personnel.
May 4 – The 8th death of a 72-year-old woman, while 37 positive cases were reported with 31 being navy personnel and 2 relatives of navy personnel.
May 5 – The 9th death of a 52-year-old woman from Modera, while 20 positive cases were reported with 15 cases being navy personnel and the others from Rajagiriya, Kolonnawa and Modera.
Fifteen close contacts including family members of the deceased woman have been sent to quarantine centres. This is while around 1,200 people in the ‘B’ block of the ‘Meth Sanda Sevana’ where she was living have been placed under self-quarantine.
Meanwhile, 138 people from Bandaranayakapura in Rajagiriya, Kolonnawa and Modera have also been sent to quarantine centres.
May 6 – 29 cases were reported, of which 24 were navy personnel and 5 close contacts of navy personnel.
May 7 – 27 cases were reported among whom were 6 navy personnel and the others were contacts of navy personnel.