Over 170 patients, over the weekend, sought treatment at various hospitals in Sri Lanka, including the IDH in Angoda, in fear that they may have contracted the novel coronavirus, health ministry sources told Daily Mirror yesterday.

Sources said in total, 178 patients had visited various hospitals set up to treat coronavirus patients on Saturday and Sunday, but were released after they were treated and were found to be suffering from the flu.

"Daily we have a large number of people visiting hospitals, fearing they may be infected from the coronavirus. These hospitals are fully geared to treat the large number of patients coming in. But so far it has been revealed that this virus can only spread through droplets of an infected person, so the public has nothing to fear as we have only one confirmed case. We request the public to keep their hands clean and follow the basic preventive measures outlined by the World Health Organisation," Ministry sources said.

Chief Epidemiologist of the Epidemiology Unit, Dr. Sudath Samaraweera told Daily Mirror that till Monday evening, 18 patients were admitted in hospitals on suspicions of the novel coronavirus.

Out of the 18, 8 were foreign nationals while 10 were Sri Lankan nationals. 12 patients were at the IDH while 5 were admitted in other hospitals.

The foreign nationals included European nationals and African nationals.

Samaraweera also rejected reports of a BIA employee having contracted the coronavirus and being transferred to the IDH.

He said so far only one confirmed case was detected in Sri Lanka and the Chinese national who had tested positive was under close observation although she had been cured. (Jamila Husain)