Thefirst U.S. coronavirus patient who did not recently travel overseaswas unable to be tested for several days because of federal regulations,The New York Timesreported.
On Wednesday night, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed that a woman in California had tested positive for the new coronavirus, officially termed COVID-19, despite not having contact with anyone with coronavirus and not having recently traveled overseas. This is the first case of its kind in the U.S., though the CDC said it will investigate whether the patient may have been exposed to someone with coronavirus.
According toa letter from officials at U.C. Davis, the patient had come from another Northern California hospital with a suspected viral infection, and they immediately asked that the patient undergo coronavirus testing.
The CDC eventually ordered testing on Sunday, and the agency confirmed that the patient had coronavirus on Wednesday.
“This is not the first COVID-19 patient we have treated, and because of the precautions we have had in place since this patient’s arrival, we believe there has been minimal potential for exposure here at UC Davis Medical Center,” hospital officials said.
Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty
On Tuesday, the CDCurged Americans to start preparing for a bigger outbreakin the U.S. “in the expectation that this could be bad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC.
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen,” Messonnier said.
Just before the untraceable case was confirmed on Wednesday night, PresidentDonald Trumpsaid that Vice PresidentMike Pencewill beleading the federal government’s responseto the coronavirus outbreak. They plan to ask Congress for additional funding to prevent the disease from spreading.
source: people.com
