Sri Lanka government has decided to reimpose curfew in all districts of the country from Thursday evening as COVID-19 cases continue to rise with 27 persons testing positive on Wednesday.

The number of active cases have risen to 506 while 136 have recovered and seven died out of total 649 infections so far.

The positive cases include 226 navy personnel, mostly from Welisara navy camp.

The number of positive cases have doubled over a week, mainly due to spread of infections at the navy camp.

The curfew in 21 low risk districts was relaxed from Tuesday but is being reimposed till Monday in wake of the developing situation.

Curfew in remaining four districts including Colombo is in place continually since 20th of last month. Meanwhile, Director General of Health Services Dr. Anil Jaisinghe, said that no predictions can be made regarding the emergence of new COVID-19 clusters or the growth of existing clusters in the country.

In a statement, he said that health officials, as well as intelligence services, are keeping a close watch on the possible contacts of navy personnel.

In related development, Defence Secretary Kamal Gunaratne has requested the public not to stigmatise tri-Forces personnel, especially the Sri Lanka navy and their families who have been infected while fighting to contain the spread of coronavirus. Issuing a statement, he said it is very unfortunate to see how people, whom they tried to protect, have complaint against them when some sailors had gone home on leave.