COVID-19 is a new virus drastically impacting on the human lives all over the world. Sri Lanka implements a monitored and coordinated set of guidelines to mitigate the present pandemic situation in the country. The present study was carried out to assess the consequences of COVID-19 on urban and rural lifestyles in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire survey was conducted via off site communication methods to collect data using a total of 60 randomly selected families consisting of 30 urban and 30 rural settings. Results of the study revealed that, awareness of the disease, employment, food, and sanitation are the major factors impacted on lifestyles of both communities. While, 55% of urban dwellers have had a medium level awareness of the disease, 10% of rural dwellers have had no knowledge on the disease. 24% and 27% of rural and urban dwellers respectively, got half salary payments, especially those employed in the private sector. Further, 7% of non-urban dwellers had lost their jobs. The majority (70%) of urban dwellers depended on online and door to door food delivery systems where 20% have reported dissatisfaction on efficiency and the quality of services. During the study, it was observed that more than 85% of the urban dwellers depend on municipal garbage collecting Lorries for their house hold waste disposal while 80% of non-urban dwellers convert them to compost. 50% of the urban dwellers have reported poor functioning of municipal garbage collection during the present pandemic period. The people faced some other problems such as bad smell and increasing fly and rat populations. 90% of the rural and 70% of the urban families confirmed smooth functioning of water and electricity supply during the pandemic period. On an overall, poor awareness of the pandemic and losing of jobs were identified as major issues in rural areas.
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