The Sri Lankan government has decided to relax the ongoing island-wide curfew which was imposed last month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, from Monday onwards with the objective of restoring normalcy in the country, according to the President’s Media Division.

The government directives said that the curfew currently in force in all other districts except Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Puttalam, Kandy, Kegalle and Ampara will be lifted at 5 am on Monday, and will be re-imposed at 8 pm on the same day, the Daily Mirror newspaper reported.

If any area where the curfew has been relaxed happens to be identified as a risk village or a zone, curfew will be re-imposed limiting only to such area.

No one will be permitted to enter or leave areas designated as isolated.

Movements between districts will not be allowed except for essential services including office work.

Schools, universities, tuition classes and other education institutes and cinemas will remain closed until further notice, the Daily Mirror quoted the directives as saying.

Once the curfew is relaxed, state entities including Departments, Corporations and banks will operate as usual.

The Government has also requested the suspension of all religious festivals.

Sri Lanka has so far reported 254 confirmed coronavirus cases, with seven deaths.

On March 18, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had called on the citizens of the country to temporarily halt travel, public gatherings or celebrations as this would enable the government to completely control the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

With businesses hampered due to the outbreak of the pandemic, Rajapaksa also unveiled relief packages such as offering lentils and canned fish at subsidized rates, and ordered banks and finance companies to allow a recovery period of six months for the loan facilities taken by businesses.

Earlier, there was a riot in the north central province jail, causing at least two deaths, as inmates feared that they may get infected by the virus.

The global death toll from the coronavirus has now crossed over 1,60,000 people, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

At least 160,717 people have died from COVID-19 and more than 2.3 million cases have been confirmed worldwide.

China has classified coronavirus epicentre Wuhan as a low-risk area, days after it revised the city’s death toll by 50 per cent, even as 16 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the country, according to the health officials on Sunday.