Every Wednesday will be a public holiday until the crisis subsides.

In light of the prevailing crisis, the government has decided to declare Wednesday a holiday for government offices every week, with the aim of minimizing potential problems that may arise in the future. Essential Services Commissioner General Prabath Chandrakirthi revealed this while participating in a special press conference held to inform about the government's future actions.

According to this new decision, Wednesday will also be observed as a holiday for schools, universities, and the judiciary. However, the Commissioner General emphasized that this holiday will not apply to institutions providing essential services such as health, ports, water supply, and customs, which must continue to operate without interruption.

Concurrently, it has also been decided to temporarily suspend all celebratory events organized by the government until further notice. Furthermore, the government has taken steps to request the private sector, through the Chamber of Commerce and the Employers' Federation of Ceylon, to apply this holiday decision to the private sector as well.

After declaring Wednesday a holiday, the full authority to decide the number of officers to be called to offices during the remaining four days of the week and how they should be called has been vested with the respective Ministry Secretaries and Department Heads. In addition, Mr. Prabath Chandrakirthi stated that government offices will not operate on the weekend days of Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to the general issuance of fuel to all sectors under the existing QR code system, a new program has been introduced to prioritize specific sectors. Accordingly, the required fuel quantities for sectors such as tourism, industry, health, agriculture, and plantations, as well as for the transportation of essential food items, will be separately calculated through the relevant ministries, and fuel will be issued to meet those needs.

The Commissioner General pointed out that there are currently sufficient fuel reserves in the country and further stated that the government made these decisions as a precautionary measure to successfully face potential problems in the future by anticipating them in advance.