Last week, the government imposed a curfew and lockdown in many parts of the same district, which is adjacent to Colombo district, after hundreds of workers at the Brandix Fashion Ware factory in Minuwangoda tested positive.
Announcing the district-wide curfew on Thursday, Army Commander Shavendra Silva, who is also the head of the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO), declared, however, that free trade zone workers should continue working. He instructed them to use their service identity cards as curfew passes. In other words, factory production must not be disrupted, irrespective of the danger of infection from the highly contagious disease.