 "Coronavirus, vaccine, covid-19, vaccination")
Sri Lanka on Friday announced that citizens from September 15 would require vaccination cards, certifying both doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered, to travel between provinces and in public spaces.
Presently, there is a ban on inter-provincial travel, while employers are asked to ensure most employees work from home.
The National COVID-19 Prevention Centre said from September 15 vaccination cards would become mandatory for inter-provincial travel and for moving in public spaces.
The plans were approved during a senior-level health sector meeting. Further, it has been decided that travel restrictions would be put in place for the next two weeks, which may even be extended.
The measures were taken in view of the increasing number of delta variant COVID-19 cases.
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The highly transmissible Delta variant, which was first identified in India, is spreading rapidly across Sri Lanka and comprises around 75 per cent of the new cases reported in its Western province.
There has been a rise in the number of deaths and new COVID-19 infections driven in large part by the highly infectious variant. Sri Lanka has refrained from imposing a total lockdown, keeping in view the adverse effect on the economy.
On Wednesday, 156 deaths were recorded, the highest single-day number with over 3,000 new infections also being reported. Some 11.6 million of the 21 million population have received at least one dose of the vaccine. From that, 4 million have received both the jabs, the health ministry figures show.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called for care of senior citizens, who suffer from COVID-19. Sri Lanka has reported 345,118 COVID-19 cases and the death toll stands at 5,620, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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