Police in Baoding, Hebei province, have arrested a person who runs a website for spreading rumors of SARS infections in Baoding, Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.

According to the police, the person, surnamed Liu, used the website he operates to spread rumors on Feb 19 that SARS infections had occurred in Baoding-based PLA 252 Hospital in order to boost the website’s traffic.

On Sunday, local authorities decided to punish Liu by sentencing him to spend two years in a labor education institution, the report said.

The Ministry of Health published an online note on Feb 25 to clarify that the infections in the hospital were actually caused by adenovirus type 55. The note said there has been no report of any fatal or critical cases.

Feng Zijian, director of the emergency response department of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control, confirmed the Ministry of Health’s statement at a news conference on Monday.

“This type of virus is not new. In 2006, it induced an outbreak in a boarding school in the north,” Feng said. “A large number of people living together greatly facilitates the transmission of the virus.”