COLOMBO, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called to halt all movement out of the country's Western Province which includes capital Colombo as the number of COVID-19 patients in the province saw a rise in recent weeks, local media reported here Thursday.

The President's Media Division, in a statement said despite a 10 day curfew being lifted in the Western Province earlier this week, President Rajapaksa had informed the authorities to take measures to restrict movement out of the Western Province to other provinces as a majority of COVID-19 patients had been reported from the Western Province in recent weeks.

Health officials said in recent weeks, over 3,000 patients had been reported in the Colombo district alone.

Following the president's decision, the Transport Ministry said all passenger buses and trains would also be prohibited from leaving the Western Province from Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. This would remain in place till Nov. 15.

Sri Lanka has seen a surge in the number of COVID-19 patients in recent weeks after two new clusters were detected in Minuwangoda, in the outskirts of capital Colombo and another from a fish market in Peliyagoda, in Colombo.

Till Thursday morning, the total number of COVID-19 patients rose to 15,350 out of which 10,183 patients had recovered and been discharged.

Sri Lanka has reported 46 deaths from the virus. Enditem

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