• Those who leave their homes for shopping or to purchase groceries will have to strictly follow the ID card system

By Jamila Husain

Army Commander General Shavendra Silva yesterday said that despite an island wide travel restriction coming to an end at 4 am today, people were cautioned to leave their homes only if necessary as the next three weeks were extremely crucial.    

Silva told Daily Mirror that people were urged not to misuse the lifting of the travel restriction as the health authorities raced against time to normalize the rapid spread of the new variant of the coronavirus which was now airborne.  

Silva said that from today, the island wide travel restriction would be imposed from 11 pm to 4 am daily till May 31 and in the none restricted hours, people were urged to strictly practice all the health guidelines.  

Although shops and businesses would remain open, owners were informed to operate on a minimum staff as a work-from-home policy was in place.  

“The next three weeks are very crucial so we urge everyone to be very cautious and not misuse the travel restriction being lifted. We urge everyone to corporate as we need to stop the spread of  COVID-19,” Silva said.  
Despite the ID card system coming into place once again from today which will be in effect till May 31, those travelling to work will be allowed to do so.  

Only those who leave their homes for shopping or to purchase groceries will have to strictly follow the ID card system which requires people to check the final digit of their NICs and those who have even numbers will be allowed to leave home only on the even dates. While those ending with the odd numbers will be allowed to leave home on the odd dates.   

Those who are travelling to work will not be checked.