KP.2 Covid variant appears more transmissible, but not virulent: Doctors
The new KP.2 Covid-19 variant appears to be more transmissible, but is not virulent, said doctors on Monday, amid reports of 91 cases being detected in Maharashtra.
Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has 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, according to his office on Wednesday.
Rajapaksa said a large number of Sri Lankans had returned to the country in recent days from virus-hit nations including Italy and authorities had identified all of them as well as their closest relatives and had asked them to be self quarantined in their own homes.
Rajapaksa said, “We have deployed the police, the tri-forces, public health inspectors and local government officers for this purpose and I request that they be given the fullest cooperation”, according to the local media.
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The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Indian subcontinent rose overnight to 482 as authorities across the region imposed travel restrictions to block the fast-spreading disease that has infected nearly 200,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 8,000 people.
Sri Lanka, which has recorded 43 coronavirus cases, said it would ban all incoming flights for two weeks from Wednesday to combat the spread of the virus.
Earlier on Monday, Mohan Samaranayake, a spokesman for President said that flights already in the air will be allowed to land and passengers to disembark.
As many as 167 confirmed cases including four deaths were reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 13 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 77 in Taiwan including one death. A total of 92 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 22 in Taiwan were discharged from hospital after recovery on Tuesday.
With businesses hampered due to the outbreak of the pandemic, President 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.
“We are in the process of planning more relief to the public,” the President said.
(With agency inputs)
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