COLOMBO: Sri Lankan health authorities on Monday said the country has its first confirmed case of a person infected with the new virus from China.
The patient is a Chinese woman in her 40s who arrived in Sri Lanka last week as a tourist from China's Hubei province, said Dr Sudath Samaraweera, chief epidemiologist of the country's health ministry.
The woman was suffering from a fever when she was admitted on Saturday to the island nation's Infectious Disease Hospital, a state-run facility that treats people suffering from potentially deadly infectious diseases.
Sri Lanka became a major travel destination for Chinese tourists in recent years.
Many Chinese nationals also work on Chinese-funded infrastructure projects - including a sea port, port city and highways.
Thousands of people have been sickened in China by the new virus and scores of people have died.