A myth that has been circulating in WhatsApp groups is that drinking lots of water can wash the virus into your stomach, where gastric acid can kill it. 

There are several reasons that this myth is not true. 

• If you have been infected, there will be millions of viral particles in your body. This means that washing a few of these into the stomach by drinking water would have little impact. 
• While the virus may enter your body through your mouth and throat, it can also enter the body through touching your nose and eyes. This means that focusing on not touching your face and washing your hands regularly are far more effective ways of avoiding the virus. 
• We do not know if stomach (gastric) acid is able to kill the virus. There is even some evidence that some pathogens (pathogens are disease-causing viruses, bacteria, or fungi) are resistant to this acid. Even if you were able to wash lots of the viral particles into your stomach, there is no guarantee that this would kill the virus. 

Drinking lots of water is a good idea as it helps to keep your body healthy. However, this is not a method through which you can prevent infection. Drinking very, very excessive amounts of water can also have a negative impact on your body. This is because it can throw the levels of sodium (salt) in your blood out of balance. You should focus on just drinking the amount of water that you need!