The search has intensified with the deployment of three police teams for a 25-year-old woman who had fled the IDH along with her infant son two nights ago while being treated for Covid-19.

The child, aged 2 ½ years, was found yesterday at the woman’s home in Eheliyagoda.

Police say there is information that she had been seen at Eheliyagoda, Kiriella and Pindurangala areas on the same day.

She had been admitted to the IDH while being imprisoned for suspected drug dealing.

Meanwhile, with 435 new patients, the Covid-19 caseload increased to 19,280.

The clusters from the Brandix factory at Minuwangoda and the fish market at Peliyagoda account for 15,765 of them.

The Colombo district accounted for 160 of the 435 new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday, says the National Operation Centre for the Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak.

Also, 71 and 21 cases respectively were found from Gampaha and Kalutara districts.

The Centre said further that a sea marshal and three foreigners have also been diagnosed with the virus.

Meanwhile, a new Oxford University study says people who have contracted Covid-19 are “highly unlikely” to contract the disease again for at least six months.

Researchers say the findings are “exciting” because they represent an important step in understanding how Covid-19 immunity may work.

The study claims to be the first large-scale research into how much protection people get against re-infection after contracting the virus.

It was part of a major collaboration between the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust but has not yet been peer reviewed.