on 22 march, making the total number of cases 82. on 23 march, five people tested positive for a total case count of 87. on 23 march, the country's first citizen who had tested positive was released from the hospital after showing improvement during recovery. 24 march 2020 – 3 april 2020 on 24 march, the assistant of a church pastor was reported to have tested positive for covid-19. a father-son duo who attended friday jummah prayers on 20 march at the jami ul-alfar mosque also tested positive for covid-19. six more cases were reported on 25 march, bringing the total case count to 106. no new confirmed cases were reported in the country on 26 march and 27 march, according to army general shavendra silva. on 26 march, a recent returnee from abroad contracted covid-19, and came into contact with 26 people in his village, which entered a lockdown. the next day, the father and sister of the patient tested positive for covid-19, and they were admitted to the kalutara nagoda hospital. three villages were placed under lockdown: bandaragama-atalugama, kandy-akurana, and puttalam-kadayamkulam. on 28 march, the first confirmed death from covid-19 was recorded in sri lanka: a 60-year-old patient from marawila who had a kidney transplant and had a history of diabetes and high blood pressure. the body was cremated within 15 hours. on 30 march, the second death from covid-19, a 60-year-old man from negombo, was reported. five more people tested positive for covid-19, including a four-month-old baby on 30 march, bringing the total to 122. on 30 march, five villages in beruwala with a total population of over 100 were quarantined after an airport driver tested positive for the virus. on 31 march, 21 more patients contracted covid-19, the highest single-day increase at the time. most of them were relatives of previously confirmed covid-19 patients. on 1 april, five patients from kurunegala, jaffna, and maradana tested positive for the disease for a total case count of 147. on the same day, four patients recovered from the disease, increasing the total number of recovered patients to 21. later that day, a 72-year-old covid-19 patient died at the idh, angoda, increasing the total death toll to 3. on 2 april, three patients tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total case count to 151. one person died of covid-19, which increased the death toll to 4. on 3 april, eight more people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 159. 4 april 2020 – 15 april 2020 on 4 april, director general of health services dr. anil jasinghe confirmed the death of a fifth patient from covid-19, and their body was cremated in the afternoon. on the same day, seven more patients were confirmed to have contracted covid-19, bringing the total case count to 162. on 4 april, anton sebastianpillai, a sri lankan-born british geriatrician and author, died after testing positive for covid-19. on 5 and 6 april, 12 new covid-19 cases were recorded and on next day for a total case count of 178. on 7 april, an 80-year-old male from dehiwala died, and became the sixth person to die from covid-19. on the same day, seven more patients tested positive for the disease, bringing the total case count to 185. on 8 april, four patients tested positive for covid-19, increasing the total case count to 189, and the seventh covid-19-related death was reported. on 9 and 10 april, nine people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total case count to 197. on 12 april, 11 people tested positive for the virus. on 13 april, eight people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total case count to 218. on 14 april, 15 people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total to 233. on 15 april, 5 people tested positive for the virus for a total case count of 238. 17 april 2020 – 30 april 2020 on 17 april, seven new cases were reported. between 18 and 19 april, 27 people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total number of infections to 271. on 20 april, 33 people from colombo tested positive for covid-19, increasing the total case count to 303; it was the highest number of new covid-19 cases in a single day until 26 april. on 23 april, 38 people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total to 368; 30 of the cases were sailors from the welisara navy camp that placed people under quarantine. on 24 april, 52 people tested positive for covid-19, bringing the total up to 420. over 60 navy personnel tested positive within 2 days. these officers had been on duty in ja-ela when they were exposed. on 25 april, 40 people tested positive for covid-19. on 26 april, 62 new cases of the virus were reported, including several from naval bases. on 27 april, 65 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 588. on 28 april, 31 people tested positive for the virus, which brought the total to 619. on 29 april, 30 new cases were reported for a total of 649. on 30 april, 16 new cases were reported. 1 may 2020 – 21 may 2020 on 1 may, 25 people tested positive for the virus. on 2 may, the 700th covid-19 patient became infected, along with 14 other patients. the total number of cases increased to 705, with 182 patients recovering. on 3 may, 13 more people tested positive for the virus. on 4 may, sri lanka reported its 8th covid-19 death. 37 people tested positive for the virus on the same day. on 5 may, another person died of the virus for a total death count of 9. on the same day, 16 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total case count to 771. on 6 may, 29 people tested positive for covid-19, mostly navy personnel, bringing the total case count up to 797. on 7 may, sri lanka recorded its 800th covid-19 patient, along with 27 others. on 8 and 9 may, 23 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 847. on 10 may, 16 people tested positive for covid-19, 13 of which were sri lankan navy officers. on 11 may, six people tested positive for the virus. on 12 may, 20 people tested positive for the virus, which increased the total case count to 889. on 13 may, the total case count exceeded 900 with 26 new covid-19 cases. on 14 may, 10 people tested positive, bringing the total to 925. on 15 may, 10 more people tested positive for the disease. on 16 may, the total case count increased to 960. on 17 may, the total case count rose to 981 with 21 new cases. the next day, the case count increased to 992 with 11 new cases. on 19 may, 35 people tested positive for the virus, which brought the total case count to 1,027 total cases. on 20 may, one person tested positive for the virus. on 21 may, another 27 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 1,055. 22 may 2020 – 4 june 2020 on 22 may, 13 people tested positive for the virus, bringing the total case count to 1068. on the next day, the total increased to 1089 with 21 new cases, 19 of which were sri lanka navy sailors. until 24 may, the sri lanka army maintained 26 quarantine facilities. on 24 may, 52 people tested positive, which brought the total case count to 1,140. on 25 may, 41 people, all returning from kuwait, tested positive for the virus. on the same day, dr. anil jasinghe confirmed sri lanka's 10th death from covid-19. on 26 may 137 people tested positive for the virus, which brought the total to 1,318. the total rose to 1,469 the next day, when 150 patients tested positive for covid-19. on 28 may, 61 people tested positive for a total of 1,530. on 29 may, 28 people tested positive for the virus, which increased the total to 1,558. on 30 may, 62 people tested positive for covid-19, which brought the total to 1620. on 31 may, 16 people tested positive. on 1 june, 10 people tested positive, while one died from the virus. 40 people tested positive for the virus on 2 june, and another 66 people tested positive on 3 june. on 4 june, 48 people tested positive, bringing the total to 1,797. 4 june 2020 – 15 june 2020 after 4 june, the rate of new covid-19 cases drastically reduced, with numbers staying below 25: day new cases 5 june 4 6 june 12 7 june 21 8 june 22 9 june 2 10 june 10 11 june 8 12 june 3 13 june 3 14 june 5 15 june 16 16 june 2020 – 30 june 2020 in the next week, fewer new cases were recorded than usual: day new cases 16 june 10 17 june 9 18 june 23 19 june 3 22 june 1 on 23 june, 40 people tested positive. on 24 june, 10 cases were reported, and the total case count reached 2,000. new cases gradually rose in the following days: day new cases 25 june 9 26 june 4 27 june 19 28 june 4 29 june 5 30 june 5 at the end of june, 2,047 people were infected with the virus and 1,748 had recovered. 1 july 2020 – 3 october 2020 on 1 july, seven people tested positive for the virus. on 2 july, 12 people tested positive in quarantine centres. new cases for the remainder of the week were only reported from quarantine centres: day case count 3 july 3 4 july 5 5 july 2 6 july 1 on 7 july, a new case was recorded from welikada prison, where an inmate had been transferred from the kandakadu treatment and rehabilitation centre. over 177 people who were in contact with the infected inmate were subjected to pcr tests. on 8 july, 13 patients returned from overseas and tested positive, bringing total cases to 2,094; 1,979 patients recovered from the disease. on 9 july 2020, a record total of 253 inmates at kandakadu treatment & rehabilitation center tested positive for covid-19. on 10 july 2020, 283 people from the kandakadu treatment & rehabilitation centre, 90 from kandakadu, and 14 cases outside of kandakadu tested positive for covid-19. the cluster included a female counsellor working at the centre who was on leave with her parents at the time. on 11 july, another counsellor working at the kandakadu center tested positive along with his two children. 4 october 2020 – 19 october 2020 on 4 october, an outbreak occurred in minuwangoda and divulapitiya, and a curfew was enforced. governments were reluctant to enforce another lockdown for fear of bankrupting businesses and their employees out of their livelihood. sri lanka's bureau of foreign employment said that since 8 october, 67 sri lankan migrant workers died from covid-19; the deaths were mostly reported from middle eastern countries. more than 2600 middle eastern workers tested positive for covid-19. an employee at the brandix minuwangoda textile factory tested positive for the virus, and their family were sent to the idh hospital. the university grants commission announced that kelaniya university, gampaha wickramarachchi ayurveda institute, and naiwala advanced technological institute were to close for one week. on 12 october 2020, the hela clothing group said an employee tested positive at its thihariya plant, which was closed. later, the government announced that the lockdown in gampaha district would continue for a few more days. on 12 october, 90 new covid-19 cases were reported, bringing the total case count in the minuwangoda cluster to 1397. lieutenant general shavendra silva said: "questions are being raised if we have the facilities to quarantine more people. if the need arises we have the facilities in place to quarantine more people". at the same time, an employee working at the south asian textiles garment factory tested positive for covid-19. on 12 october 2020, 12 lanka electricity company employees working at the kandana branch tested positive for the virus. 120 people were arrested for curfew violation in lockdown areas. on 13 october, the total case count in the minuwangoda cluster rose to 1446. on 18 october 2020, four monks in the ovitigala temple