Colombo: Sri Lanka’s health ministry has issued guidelines for private hospitals to test patients for COVID19 Coronavirus, expanding available health facilities, but they have to be admitted to hospital, Director General of Health Anil Jasinghe said.

“This is not a screening test. It is a diagnostic test,” Jasinghe told reporters in Colombo. “So the patient has to be admitted to hospital.”

Jasinghe had earlier raised concerns over diagnostic tests carried out by a private hospital where the patient had gone home, raising the possibility of spreading the disease.

Private hospitals that admit patients that did not have their own facilities could ask for the test to be done at a government hospital also for 6000 rupees, he said.

Sri Lanka had so far confirmed 51 patients including a Chinese tourist. Most of the rest had been people who had been infected while abroad.

Sri Lanka has nearly two dozen state hospitals which are designated to treat coronavirus patients.