COLOMBO: Sri Lanka welcomed its first foreign tourists in nine months on Monday (Dec 28), even as a new, deadlier strain of the coronavirus gripped the island.
A charter flight carrying 185 passengers from Ukraine landed at a little-used airport south of Colombo, which has been stricken by a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
In less than three months, the official number of coronavirus fatalities in Sri Lanka has risen from 13 to 194, while the number of infections has gone from 3,300 to more than 41,000.
Still, authorities hope the Ukrainian arrivals will be the first of thousands of foreigners to visit – easing pressure on the tourism-reliant economy that was shut down in March.
The visitors, who had to produce coronavirus-free certificates before departure, were tested again on arrival at Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport.
They will be confined to their hotels for the duration of their holiday advertisement.
