A patient with coronavirus-like symptoms escaped from Dhaka's Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital this afternoon.

Shahjahan (40), who returned from Bahrain, was admitted to the hospital's medicine ward around 8:00am today.

He has been suffering from fever, cough, sneezing and breathing difficulties, the hospital's Director Uttam Kumar Barua told The Daily Star.

After examining his health condition, doctors suspected that it might be a case of coronavirus, so they called for a team from Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the director said.

When the IEDCR team reached the hospital around 12:30pm and went to the medicine ward, doctors did not find him and his wife, he added.

Uma Rani Saha, a nurse at the hospital, told The Daily Star that the patient was very nervous when he heard that he might be infected with coronavirus.

Shahjahan, hailing from Noakhali, came to Dhaka from Bahrain on January 18.