Customers do shopping when a curfew is lifted temporarily for people to re-stock on essential items in Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 24, 2020. Sri Lankan authorities on Tuesday declared three districts including capital Colombo as "high risk" areas due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 and imposed an indefinite curfew there, a statement from the President's Office said. As a result of the curfew, the statement said essential items including medicines will be delivered to people's doorsteps as the public had been banned from leaving their homes until further notice. The decision was made after large crowds gathered at supermarkets and grocery shops earlier Tuesday in Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara in the outskirts of the capital and Puttalam in the north central province, when a curfew was lifted for six hours for people to re-stock on essential items. Mandatory rules of maintaining a one-meter distance was not maintained which led to health officials proposing essential items to be delivered. Sri Lanka has so far identified 100 COVID-19 positive patients while over 200 are under observation in the designated hospitals across the country. (Photo by A.Hapuarachchi/Xinhua)
