With the detection of fresh COVID-19 cases at the drug-rehabilitation centre in Kandakadu, the government has decided to slow down the process of repatriating Sri Lankans from abroad, an official said today.

Additional Secretary to the President for Foreign Relations, Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage told Daily Mirror that more families would have to be sent to quarantine centres after the discovery of new patients in the country.

He said more than some 49,000 Sri Lankans living abroad have sought to return to Sri Lanka and of them some 15,500 had already arrived here.

“The number of people wishing to return keeps changing because some who show interest initially to return change their minds later while new batches keen to return,” Prof. Colombage said. (By Kelum Bandara)