Sri Lanka has eradicated coronavirus.
The\xa0Sinhala-language text superimposed on the image translates to English as: “Sri Lanka becomes the first country in the world to completely eradicate the coronavirus!, “Doctors inform the virus has been completely removed from the Chinese woman who was infected. / Our gratitude to the doctors and nurses who were dedicated to this.”, The novel coronavirus\xa0has killed at least 425 and infected more than 20,000 people in China as of February 4, 2020, as stated in\xa0this AFP report. Scientists believe it originated at\xa0a wildlife market in the Chinese city of\xa0Wuhan\xa0in early December 2019, and has since spread to at least 24 countries worldwide., Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:, Sri Lanka confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus on January 27, 2020 -- a Chinese woman from Hubei province. According to this latest situation report by Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health, dated February 3, 2020, one confirmed novel coronavirus patient had "now fully recovered" but remained\xa0under the care of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and twenty other suspected cases were "under surveillance"., A similar misleading claim\xa0was\xa0shared on Facebook here, here, here and here., "The\xa0claim\xa0is\xa0misleading; Sri Lankan health experts say the coronavirus patients recovery is insufficient evidence that Sri Lanka\xa0has eradicated the virus as the “possibility for other infected patients” remains due to the incubation period. Experts\xa0urged the public to continue to follow\xa0government recommendations for prevention.", A registrar at Sri Lanka’s Health Promotion Bureau, Dr. Ashan Pathirana told AFP during a telephone conversation on January 3, 2020 that it would be a “a grave misrepresentation of facts” to claim Sri Lanka has become the world’s first country to eradicate the novel coronavirus., “We are unable to say with certainty that Sri Lanka has eradicated novel coronavirus because there is a possibility for other infected patients to be reported in the coming days, considering the natural history of this infection,” he said., He also said that symptoms of the novel coronavirus may appear as long as eight days after exposure., “Therefore we urge the public to refrain from taking the situation lightly and ensure they follow all precautions issued by the Ministry of Health to minimize the risk of 2019-nCoV transmission, until otherwise told,” he added., Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health has issued this fact sheet of guidelines following the outbreak of novel coronavirus in the country., Below is a screenshot of the government release:, , , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Sri Lankan health experts refute misleading online claim that country has eradicated novel coronavirus | AFP Fact Check