COVID-19 alert prevents relatives’ Christmas visits to prison

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan prison authorities did not allow relatives to visit inmates on Christmas Day as a precaution while COVID-19 cases are surging in prisons, according to The Associated Press.

Usually, all the inmates are allowed to meet their relatives and friends and receive gifts on Christmas.

By Friday, the number of confirmed cases in the prisons rose to 3,611, most of them inmates while 121 are prison officers.

Most of Sri Lanka’s 39,000 cases emerged since October from clusters centered on a garment factory and a fish market in Colombo and its suburbs.

The prison cluster emerged last month.