Tuesday, January 21, 2020

First U.S. case of potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus confirmed in Washington state

A man in Washington state has been diagnosed with a mysterious virus that began last month in China, becoming the first case confirmed in the United States of an illness that has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds more, according to U.S. officials. The man, in his 30s, is in stable condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington. Officials said they are monitoring him there out of an abundance of caution, not because he is seriously ill. The man arrived in the United States last week, before federal health officials began screening travelers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan at Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York’s John F. Kennedy international airports, the first such effort since the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Washington state health officials said the man, a resident of Snohomish County, Washington, returned from a trip to the region around Wuhan, where the outbreak began. He arrived at the Seattle-area international airport Wednesday. Shortly afterward, he began feeling ill and reached out to his health-care provider on Sunday. Local, state and federal officials quickly collected samples and sent them to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where his case was confirmed Monday as the coronavirus, which has sickened nearly 300 people in China and others in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. CDC officials said they are expanding screening to international airports in Atlanta and Chicago. More than 1,200 travelers have been screened since Friday. Over the weekend, federal officials began redirecting travelers arriving in the United States on direct and indirect flights from Wuhan to airports screening travelers for the new virus...MORE

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