Arizona case of Wuhan coronavirus is the 5th US diagnosis of the virus

2020-01-28 01:46:42

A person in Maricopa County, Arizona, who returned from traveling in Wuhan, China, is the fifth person confirmed to have the coronavirus in the US.

A fifth person in the US has been confirmed to have the Wuhan coronavirus.
A member of the Arizona State University community who does not live in university housing was diagnosed after returning from travel in Wuhan, China, ABC 15 reported on Sunday, citing state and local health departments.
Two people in California, a man in his 30s in Washington, and a woman in her 60s in Chicago have also been confirmed to have the coronavirus. All the people had recently traveled to Wuhan.
Officials in Orange County, California, said they believe there was no person-to-person transmission in the county. Arizona officials said they were investigating the person's close contacts.
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A case of the Wuhan coronavirus was confirmed in Maricopa County, Arizona, bringing the total number of people confirmed to be infected with the deadly virus in the United States to five.

The person with the virus in Arizona is a member of the Arizona State University community but does not live in university housing, ABC 15 reported, citing state and local health departments. The person recently returned from travel in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak.

Arizona officials said they were investigating the person's close contacts to determine whether the virus spread while they were infectious, but Dr. Cara Christ, the director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, told ABC 15 that the immediate risk to the public "is believed to be low at this time."

Two people in California were also diagnosed with the coronavirus over the weekend, including a person in Orange County who traveled to the US from Wuhan, according to The Orange County Register.

The person had been in contact with the Orange County Health Care Agency and "was provided guidance in order to reduce exposure to the public while awaiting laboratory confirmation" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency said in a statement to the newspaper. "The individual has now been transported to a local hospital and is in isolation in good condition."

The agency said that it did not believe that person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus had occurred within the county and that it was working with the CDC and the California Department of Public Health to reach out to all people who had been in contact with the infected person.

The person in Arizona joins the two people in California, a woman in her 60s in Chicago, and a man in his 30s in Washington who were also diagnosed with the virus believed to have started at a Chinese wet market. All had recently traveled to Wuhan.

Cases of the virus have been confirmed in several countries around the world, including in Canada on Saturday. The majority of the impact has been felt in China, where at least 56 people have died and more than 2,000 have reported infections.

Nancy Messonnier, a CDC director, said in a press conference on Sunday that the CDC had 100 people under investigation across 26 states and that a quarter of those 100 had been cleared. She said most people were expected to be cleared.

The CDC said it planned to release a map of the states with investigations in the coming week.