COLOMBO: The England cricket team arrives in Sri Lanka on Sunday to resume a pandemic-hit Test series as the South Asian nation battles a sudden surge in infections and deaths.
Joe Root’s team will immediately go into a secure bubble on their arrival which comes two days after authorities deployed top military officers to help contain coronavirus (Covid-19) cases.
Sri Lanka was one of the least-affected countries but the number of deaths has jumped from 13 in early October to 208 on Saturday. The WHO has blamed a new strain of the virus which may have come from Scandinavia.
The country had just six reported cases when England abruptly pulled out of their tour during a warm-up match in March. They return to an island which now has nearly 44,000 infections.