prior registration with the foreign ministry if they had booked paid quarantine. restrictions were reinforced on 21 december after a highly transmissible sars-cov-2 strain was found in the uk and some other countries. arrests and legal actions on 16 march 2020, four sri lankans who evaded quarantine after returning from south korea were arrested by the sri lankan police while hiding in their homes. legal action was taken against a 45-year-old patient who knew his travel partner to germany was infected and did not admit himself for treatment. he later tested himself at a private hospital despite a ban on private testing by the government. he admitted himself to the idh after carrying the virus for three days. on 20 march, the mayor of dambulla jaliya opatha and another person were arrested by police after the mayor organised a bicycle race despite the ban on gatherings. 20 people were taken into custody by the sri lanka navy in kochchikade and puttalam coasts after attempting to go out after curfew, and a court case was filed against the covid-19 patient that admitted himself to ragama hospital for chest pains while hiding his travel history, which resulted in the quarantine of hospital staff. as of 15 may, more than 55,000 people were arrested for breaching the curfew imposed by the government. some people have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the covid-19 pandemic. first wave curfews and lockdowns on 18 march, the sri lanka police imposed an emergency curfew in puttalam, negombo, kochikade, and chilaw, as 800 returnees from italy were speculated to have visited those areas, before being officially confirmed by silva. on 19 march, an emergency curfew was enforced from 10 p.m. in some area until further notice after the discovery of a new covid-19 case in ja-ela. on 20 march, rajapaksa announced that a lockdown would be enforced on the entire nation from 6 p.m. on 20 march to 6 a.m. on 24 march to contain the pandemic. the lockdown was originally supposed to last from 20 to 23 march, but it was extended an extra day due to a surge in new cases. the government announced that the curfew would be lifted from most parts of the country from 23 march except colombo, gampaha, jaffna, kilinochi, and mulaitivu to encourage the rural public to engage in retail purchases. on 23 march, the government announced that it would impose the quarantine curfew from 12pm on 24 march until 27 march to contain the spreading of coronavirus, and they banned citizens from inter-district travel from 24 to 27 march. on 24 march, the government imposed a curfew for very high risk zones such as colombo, gampaha, and kalutara for a maximum period of two weeks. on 28 march, government extended curfew for jaffna district and kandy district. on 9 april, the government announced a curfew in the ratnapura and pelmadulla police divisions in the ratnapura district. on 13 april, two villages, panvila and cheena koratuwa in beruwala, were isolated due to the threat of covid-19. on 16 april, bandaranaike mawatha in hultsdorf was completely closed down after a resident who had returned from india tested positive for covid-19 and symptoms were detected after 33 days. on the same day, nagalgam street in grandpass was also declared an isolated area until further notice. on 22 april, 12 villages in the lankapura division of polonnaruwa were declared isolated areas after the first patient from the polonnaruwa district was identified. on 24 april, uhana and damana in the ampara district temporarily declared lockdown by welisara navy camp personnel. on 28 april, havelock lane, dabare mawatha in colombo 05, and hete watte in torrington were declared isolated villages. on 3 may, panwila and china fort areas in beruwala and akurana in kandy were reopened. on 29 may, government mandated a curfew for nuwara eliya district from 29 to 31 may due to large assemblies on streets for arumugam thondaman's death. international support the government of china extended their support to sri lanka by extending the concessionary loan of us$500 million in order to fight the disease. the us government also lent their support to combat the outbreak by donating essential supplies, such as nitrile gloves and heavy duty work gloves. the founder of the alibaba group, jack ma, announced his plans to help the asian countries affected by the coronavirus, including sri lanka, by providing essential emergency supplies such as masks and test kits. on 7 april, the government of india donated 10 tonnes of essential medicines. the donation was given in good faith to sri lanka for its voluntary contribution to the saarc covid-19 emergency fund. criticisms regarding big match health authorities ordered self-isolation for 14 days for people who attended the annual big match, the cricket match held between s. thomas' college mount lavinia and royal college colombo, which is also popularly known as the battle of the blues. the warning was raised after an alumnus s. thomas college was infected with the coronavirus after attending the match. officials warned that there was a possibility of the virus being spread to the crowd mainly including the old boys of their respective schools who gathered in large numbers. rajapaksa urged the organisers to cancel the big match, but they ignored him and proceeded with the match. several companies and businesses ordered their employees who attended the big match to not report to work for 14 days. criticisms regarding general public former sri lankan cricketer mahela jayawardene criticised members of the public who stayed in long queues in the supermarket without maintaining social distancing and did not wear face masks on social media. the supermarket chains in the country made arrangements to control panic buying and long queues. research and development the pandemic. research and development unit of sri lanka navy developed a remote-controlled smart appliance called medi mate to allow healthcare workers to maintain distance from patients during testing and treatment. it is wheeled and remote-controlled, which allows workers to communicate with patients, transport medicine and meals, and spray disinfectants through an automated nozzle. the research and development unit of the sri lanka navy developed a disinfection chamber and variants with added features that were placed in kalubowila teaching hospital, neville fernando teaching hospital, and university hospital kdu. vega innovations, a subsidiary of codegen group of companies, collaborated with the ministry of health to design a low-cost volume controlled – continuous mandatory ventilation (vc-cmv) medical ventilator that could be produced for a cost under us$650 per unit. atlas axillia plc, a subsidiary of the hemas group, developed the automated guided vehicle (agv) robot, which is able to carry food and medicine, perform basic medical check-ups such as checking temperatures, and allow doctors to monitor patients remotely and have conversations with them. the first prototype was gifted to base hospital homagama. students from the faculty of engineering at the university of peradeniya repaired and developed oxygen respiratory systems and icu beds. the national science foundation of sri lanka allocated funding to combat the pandemic, and invited proposals from sri lankan scientists. the center for research and development of the ministry of defence developed an interactive remotely operated robotic platform called dr. robort, a disinfection corridor, and two mobile disinfection platforms. the ministry asked the private sector to collaborate to commercialise these inventions and begin large-scale manufacturing. the sri lanka institute of nanotechnology (slintec) collaborated with state institutions and private companies on multiple projects to deal with the pandemic. the sudden demand for nasopharyngeal swabs caused a shortage; the idh was down to 30 swabs at one point. slintec identified the materials required and studied the manufacturing process and available facilities, which were then transferred to hi fashion ltd., who began producing swabs with lady ridgeway hospital. the institute also developed low cost rt-lamp kits to detect viral rna. msc magnifica msc magniica's only sri lankan crew member on board and an ill passenger was disembarked when reached colombo harbour on her way back to italy a sri lankan chef on the msc magnifica, anura bandara herath, made a request to the sri lankan government on social media to detain him when the cruise ship reached colombo harbour for resupplying on her way back to italy. rajapaksa responded to the request, and directed vice admiral piyal de silva to bring herath ashore. herath was directed to a quarantine centre in boossa for 14 days of mandatory quarantine. a 75-year-old german female passenger also disembarked on a heart-related ailment and was admitted to the sri lanka national hospital. on 13 april, she died with complications. false reports and rumours main article: covid-19 misinformation on 12 march 2020, false reports spread on social media that the son of the 52-year-old tour guide who was infected with covid-19 had also been infected. however, the allegations were refuted by the ministry of health, and the boy did not present with any symptoms were identified after thorough checking. the sri lankan police told the general public to avoid being deceived by covid-19 misinformation on social media platforms. on 12, 13, and 14 march, the general public rushed into supermarkets and shopping centers due to panic buying. the sri lankan government insisted that the public not unnecessarily panic about the pandemic, and revealed that there was no shortage of essential items in the country, including petroleum and food. sri lanka chamber of the pharmaceutical industry chairperson kasturi chellaraja wilson revealed that there is no shortage of essential pharmaceutical products and drugs. there were rumours regarding the house-to-house quarantine in social media, but the government denied the allegations. on 16 march, opposition mp rajitha senaratne made a controversial statement that ten school students had been infected with the virus while mp sarath fonseka claimed that there were three deaths due to disease. however, on 18 march, fonseka admitted he quoted false information on facebook. the police began an investigation of the two mps. former opposition leader sajith premadasa promoted plaquenil as a drug superior than hydroxychloroquine, though they are both the same drug. due to its serious side effects, self-administration is not recommended. premadasa also claimed azithromycin could treat the side effects of hydroxychloroquine, though it is an antibiotic and is not used to treat side effects. premadasa later apologised for spreading misinformation. dhammika bandara was a mason who became a self-proclaimed sorcerer and claimed that kali gave him a recipe for a cure. he managed to gain the support of several politicians, including the health minister pavithra wanniarachi. after being prevented from giving the alleged cure to jaya sri maha bodhi, bandara acted as if he was possessed by kali and shouted "i am kali. i am your mother" at the buddhist monk in charge. many doctors and researchers criticised bandara, and ayurvedic doctors expressed concern at the fact bandara claimed to be an "indigenous doctor" without any credentials. pavithra and another minister who ingested bandara's alleged cure contracted covid-19. wanniarachi ordered the alleged cure to be investigated, and results showed that the potion was completely useless; no patients given the syrup showed any improvement over those without it. bandara refused to stop production, claiming that as it was spiritual it could not be tested and it would lose its healing properties if the patient ate maldives fish. the university of ruhuna issued a warning about a company called megha primal that fraudulently used the name of the karapitiya hospital and the university to sell a supplement it claimed cures covid-19. the company also fraudulently claimed to have iso certification. facebook, youtube, and instagram quickly deleted megha primal'spages. prison riots on 21 march, a protest was held by prison inmates in anuradhapura to separate themselves from each other after four reported cases were announced. shots were fired in the protest, resulting in the death of two prisoners, leaving another six injured. on 29 november, a riot at mahara prison outside colombo left eight people dead and over 50 injured. the riots occurred following the rumours and speculations regarding the transferring of covid-19-infected prisoners to mahara prison from other crowded prisons. the prison inmates demanded that officials and authorities increase pcr testing following a surge in covid-19 cases in sri lankan prisons. "nagitimu sri lanka" a song titled "nagitumu sri lanka" was released by the gammadda initiative as