Sri Lanka has announced a 10-day lockdown starting tonight in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as surging infections and deaths overwhelm the island's health system, Reuters reports.

The Indian Ocean nation recorded its highest single-day death toll of 187 and 3,793 cases two days ago.

Around a quarter of Sri Lanka's population has been fully vaccinated, a majority of them with China's Sinopharm vaccine. The country has reported a total of 372,079 infections since the start of the outbreak last year, with 6,604 deaths.

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