r Ministry of Defence - Sri Lanka

No decision to declare complete lockdown – Defence Secretary

April 04, 2020

Defence Secretary Maj.Gen.(Retd) Kamal Gunaratne said considering the present situation related to COVID-19 in the country, the government had not taken a decision to announce a complete lockdown during the next week.

Commenting on some rumors going viral claiming that there would be a complete five-day lockdown in the country, he said those rumors were being  spread to create a fear psychosis among the public but no such decision had been taken by the Government so far.

“Curfew has been imposed to control the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 virus. Once the health and security forces with the support of the public have been able to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, we will be able to remove curfew gradually,” he said.

Maj.Gen. Gunaratne said public should not be misled by such rumors and Police would deal with rumormongers, who were creating unnecessary panic among people.