In Sri Lanka, 180 navy personnel are among the positive cases affected by COVID including 44 who were confirmed today.

Army Commander Shavendra Silva said among the navy personnel affected, 112 are from Welisara camp and 68 are from those on leave. There are 434 active cases while seven have died and 126 recovered out of 567 infections so far.

The number of infections have doubled over past week with maximum number of 63 cases reported yesterday. Meanwhile, seven opposition parties in a joint statement today urged the President to reconvene Parliament assuring responsible cooperation in order to face the COVID challenge effectively.

The statement said the country is faced with an unprecedented national crisis which shows no signs of an early ending. It said as members of the dissolved Parliament, they are duty bound to fulfill their obligations to resolve the crisis in a spirit of responsible cooperation and called upon all political parties across the political divide of transcending partisan agendas and working together for the common good.

It may be mentioned that Sri Lankan parliament was dissolved on March 2nd and elections were announced for April 25th. However, the COVID outbreak led to postponement of elections, which is scheduled to be held on 20th June now.