Sri Lankan Military administers vaccines in Mannar
Starting 1 January, Sri Lankan authorities will require the public to show COVID-19 vaccination certificates if they wish to enter public places.
Tourism minister Prasanna Ranatunga announced Sri Lanka’s sudden switch from gradually opening up the country to now re-imposing mandates.
Ranatunga claims the new mandate has been introduced to prevent another surge in COVID-19 cases.
COVID-19 cases in Sri Lanka sky-rocketed in July, and the government imposed a lockdown from 20 August to 1 October.
Currently, cases are slowly climbing, with 2,545 new COVID-19 cases reported on 14 December.
Last week, Public Health Inspectors (PHI) Union leader Upul Rohana aired his fear of a possible outbreak growing after an Omicron variant infected tourist visited several nightclubs in Sri Lanka. At least an additional four cases of the Omicron variant have been identified on the island.
A few days ago, the U.S. donated 820,000 additional Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccines to Sri Lanka's Ministry of Health. "The United States supports Sri Lanka's ongoing efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible," said U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Martin Kelly.
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