UK variant of COVID-19 enters Sri Lanka, England’s Moeen Ali contaminated with new pressure

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Moeen Ali
The new UK variant of COVID-19 has entered Sri Lanka, well being officers have mentioned, including that England cricketer Moeen Ali had been examined constructive for the brand new pressure of the virus when he was examined right here.
The England cricket workforce is at present touring Sri Lanka for two-Test collection. Ali had been examined constructive on January 4, Hemantha Herath, the deputy director-general of well being providers, mentioned on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka has 50,200 circumstances of coronavirus and 247 deaths associated to it since mid-March when the primary outbreak was reported. Nearly 47,000 of them had been reported solely after October 4.

The presence of the brand new UK variant of the coronavirus has been reported by a number of international locations, together with Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Sudath Samaraweera, the chief epidemiologist, mentioned the UK variant was extremely infectious and will result in many extra circumstances than Sri Lanka had seen up to now. “This is why we insist on serious quarantine procedures,” he mentioned.
The nation was on a complete lockdown until mid May. Since then there had solely been partial isolation of affected areas. The nation’s airports are scheduled to be re-open on January 21 after the unique plans had been shelved because of the new surge in circumstances.