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Sri Lankan PM suspends ruling party election rallies as COVID-19 cases spike
COLOMBO, July 12, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) – Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday informed the ruling political party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), to temporarily halt election rallies following a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases from a drug rehabilitation center in Sri Lanka’s north central province.
Following the prime minister’s announcement, the ruling party in a statement said that all election rallies to be held on July 13, 14 and 15, which were to be attended by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have been canceled until further notice to comply with health guidelines.
Founder of the SLPP, Basil Rajapaksa, in the statement requested all party candidates to limit their meetings and scale down small rallies as well.
Sri Lanka will hold a parliamentary election on Aug. 5 which will elect a new 225-member parliament. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Elections Commission has said several new health guidelines will be in place to enable voters to cast their votes on polling day.
The number of positive COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka surpassed 2,511 on Sunday after 43 new patients were detected mainly from a drug rehabilitation center in the north central part of the country, the government information department said.
The Health Ministry said that a sudden spike in the number of cases was because of the Kandakadu Rehabilitation Center which has now become a cluster with over 300 inmates from the center and three counselors testing positive on Friday and Saturday.
The Health Ministry said the situation was well under control but said the number of patients could rise in the coming days.
Sri Lanka has reported 11 deaths from the virus.
BSS/XINHUA/SSS/1952 hrs