News
Five million Lankans fully vaccinated
Around 43% of those over 30 had received at least one dose of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine, Army Commander General Shavendra Silva said yesterday.
General Silva said Sri Lanka had obtained 19.7 million doses of vaccines. Five million Lankans had received both doses.
General Silva that he was concerned about those who were not coming forth to be vaccinated and, therefore, the Army had launched mobile vaccination units.
“Through them we visit the houses of those over 60 and those with serious health issues and complications. The mobile fleet has already vaccinated people in Gampaha and Kalutara districts,” Gen. Silva said.
The Task Force of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak’s (NOCPCO) priority was to reduce the number of deaths in the country, he said.
“The second is to reduce its spread, the third is the management of hospitals and the fourth is the economy,” he said.
General Silva said that the management issues in hospitals were one of the main reasons for overcrowding. If the capacity of a hospital exceeded, the rest must be transferred to another as per directions of the President about the Patient Management System.
“When we looked at those who have died, we found that most of the dead had not taken even a single dose of the vaccine. We had 160 deaths on 13 August and all of them had not taken any vaccine,” the Army Commander added.
He said that health officials were doing 19,000 PCR tests and 25,000 plus rapid antigen tests every day. However, according to the Institute of Health Policy on 17 August 22,290 PCR tests and 6,526 Rapid Antigen Tests were done. (RK)
Accepting deposits from political parties and independent groups who intend to contest the forthcoming Local Authorities Election ended at 12noon today [19].
Deposits were accepted at respective District Secretariats from 3rd March 2025.
The Elections Commission has announced that the deadline for the accepting of nominations for the LA poll is set to conclude at 12:00 noon tomorrow (20).
It has been reported that the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon has appeared before the Matara Magistrate’s Court this morning (19),
The former IGP had been evading arrest after the Matara Magistrate’s court had ordered his arrest regarding a shooting incident that took place in front of the W15 Hotel Pelena, Weligama, Matara, in 2023.
The government has begun recovering funds obtained by former Lands and Land Development, Environment and Wildlife Resources Minister SM Chandrasena for the Janatha Lanka Chilli Marketing Limited (JLCML), which he headed, Parliament was informed yesterday.
Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation Minister Namal Karunaratne said that as the Chairman of JLCML, Chandrasena had obtained a loan of Rs. 1,275,000 from the Mihintale Govijana Seva Bank in 2001.
The principal of the loan had not been repaid until the end of last year. “After we came to power, we demanded that the loan be settled. Then, we discovered that the interest on the loan had not been paid for the past 24 years, and attempts had been made to have the loan written off. We stopped that and are now in the process of recovering the interest of Rs. 1,975,233 on the loan,” Karunaratne said.
Karunaratne added that JLCML was registered as a company with the Registrar of Companies on March 21, 2001. As Chairman of the company, Chandrasena requested a loan of Rs. 10 million on April 19, 2001, for the purpose of purchasing chillies from farmers in 12 farmer colonies in the Mihintale Agrarian Service area.
The request was approved by the Mihintale Agrarian Service Committee on the same day and referred to the Anuradhapura District Agrarian Operations Committee, which approved it on April 23, 2001. However, the Agriculture Development Commissioner General recommended that a loan of Rs. 1.2 million would suffice for this purpose. JLCML took the loan and failed to repay it until the end of last year. When the matter was raised, the principal was paid, and we are now in the process of recovering the interest that was not paid for the past 24 years,” Karunaratne added.
By Saman Indrajith
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