Army Commander Shavendra Silva said Sri Lanka had seen some progress in COVID19 control measures in the past few days.

Speaking to the media, the Army Chief who also leads the country's pandemic control mission said there was a reduction in the number of cases reported on a daily basis.

"Last week, about 900 cases were reported on a daily basis. This week, the number of daily cases has dropped to about 500. We see this as some progress," the Army Commander said adding that the pandemic control measures would continue without any relaxation.

"If the public cooperates with the authorities to bring the pandemic under control we can achieve steady progress. We urge the public to take this matter seriously and support our efforts," he added.

However, Sri Lanka is currently battling the spread of new variants of COVID19 which have shown higher transmissibility. The health authorities have warned that could be an increase in cases if the country failed to contain the transmission of the new variants.