Colombo, Aug 17 (IANS): Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has reshuffled his cabinet, appointing seven new Ministers, his Office announced in a statement.

The ministers were sworn in at a small ceremony held at the Presidential Secretariat in the capital Colombo on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the statement, former Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi took the portfolio of the Transport Minister, while Keheliya Rambukwella was appointd as the Health Minister, G.L. Peiris as Foreign Minister and Dinesh Gunawardena as Education Minister.

In addition, Gamini Lokuge was appointed as the Power Minister, Dullas Allahapperuma as the Media Minister, and Namal Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Minister of Development Coordination Monitoring in addition to the portfolio of Youth and Sports.

Rambukwella took over the post as the country faces a rapid increase in COVID-19 infections due to the Delta variant.

The new Health Minister said it was imperative that collective social responsibility of all citizens is needed to defeat the pandemic challenges.