Monday, 19 July 2021 - 10:02
With the identification of 1,420 new covid infected persons yesterday, the total number of infected people in the country has increased to 284,932.
According to reports 24,523 patients are being treated at the hospital and the total number of recoveries is 256,616.
Also, the Director General of Health Services reported 46 covid related yesterday .
Accordingly, the total number of deaths in the country has increased to 3,779.
Expert committee members resign- Refuse to endorse Sinovac ?
Meanwhile, three members of the expert committee of the National Drug Regulatory Authority have resigned after disagreeing to approve the Sinovac vaccine for emergency use in Sri Lanka.
A felicitation ceremony to mark the South Asian Games Taekwondo achievements was held at the Grand Monarch Hotel with the participation of Santhush Woonjin JEONG, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea as the guest of honour.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Namal Rajapaksa, as the chief guest, felicitated the Taekwondo medalists. The event was organized under the patronage of Kanchana Jayaratne, President of Sri Lanka Taekwondo Federation.
In his welcome address, Jayaratne said Korea is the mother country of Taekwondo, and the support extended by World Tekwondo and Kukkiwon World Taekwondo Headquarters to promote Taekwondo in Sri Lanka has been a pillar behind the success of the national team at the South Asian Games in 2019.
by Norman Palihawadana
The CID has begun interrogating five persons linked to the three importers of contaminated coconut oil in a bid to get to the bottom of what is suspected to be a big time racket, which had continued for a considerable period of time.
Police said the phone records of the suspects will be checked to ascertain whether any others were also involved in the racket to inject cheap imported coconut oil with a high concentration of carcinogenic aflatoxins into the market.
Some Customs officers are also expected to be questioned by the CID in this connection.
Police have already taken into custody three bowsers suspected of transporting stocks of the contaminated coconut oil. Two were taken into police custody at Dankotuwa earlier in the week, while another was found parked at a private facility near the Economic Centre at Dambulla.
By Ifham Nizam
A critically endangered new species of geckos (Cnemaspis lokugei) was discovered from Haputale and Idalgashinna areas in Sri Lanka’s central highlands. This was the first to be recorded so far for 2021.
The newly discovered species was named in honor of Ajith Nethkelum Lokuge, a pioneer ecologist, analogue forestry specialist and a senior member of Young Zoologists’ Association (YZA) of Sri Lanka, for his significant contribution towards environmental conservation and research in Sri Lanka.
“With the new find, the number of Cnemaspis species has increased to 38”, says lead scientist Suranjan Karunarathna of the Nature Explorations and Education Team.
ECONOMYNEXT – Non-medical cotton buds and lunch sheets less than 20 microns thin are among five types of single-use plastic and polythene related products have been banned in Sri Lanka from last week, the Department of Government Information (DGI) said.
Disposable polythene and plastic, PET bottles (PolyEthylene Terepthalate), sachets (non-food and non-pharmaceutical), and air-filled plastic are the other items manufactured for local use that have been banned by the Ministry of Environment.
Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has accommodated requests made by several manufacturers to provide a grace period of three months to sell existing stocks of the five banned products. The DGI said no restrictions have been imposed on the export of these products either.