Relaxing travel restrictions only for essential purposes

Island-wide travel restrictions that came in to effect from 11:00 pm on Friday (21) will be relaxed at 04.00 am on Tuesday, May 25 and will be re-imposed at 11.00 pm on the same day, the Department of Government Information said.

In a statement, Head of the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid 19 Outbreak, Commander of the army, General Shavendra Silva, emphasized that the sole purpose of relaxing travel restrictions on Tuesday is to allow the public to purchase essential goods and services such as food and medicine.

Army Commander further stated that travel restrictions will only be relaxed but not removed.

Only essential goods and service providers such as groceries selling food items and pharmacies and filling stations will be allowed to remain open during the period travel restrictions are relaxed.

Only one person from a household should go out for purchasing essential items. Liquor shops will have to remain closed and non-essential public gatherings will not be permitted, says General Shavendra Silva.

Same regulations will be effective when the travel restrictions are relaxed again at 04.00 am on Friday 28. The weekend (29, 30) travel restrictions will be determined after reviewing the situation on May 27