UC San Diego Health, a regional research hospital that specializes in deadly and infectious diseases, released four patients Sunday after the Center for Disease Control informed the hospital that the patients had tested negative for coronavirus. One of the patients, however, was returned to the hospital on Monday after the CDC performed further testing, and realized that the patient did, in fact, have the disease.
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the four patients had been transported to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, where they were previously held under federal quarantine along with over 200 Americans returning from China.
A spokesperson for the university told the Tribune that the patient who was prematurely discharged continued to follow protocols necessary to minimize the risk of infecting others, and had been transported back to the marine base under federal supervision.
“The patient left UC San Diego Health the same way they arrived, with all precautions taken. The patient was wearing a mask per CDC instruction. The federal marshals transported the patient while wearing protection,” the spokesperson told the news agency.
According to a UC San Diego Health press release, the patient will be held at the hospital for “observation and isolation until cleared by the CDC for release,” but for the time being is “doing well” and has “minimal symptoms.”
The Tribune also reports that it was unclear “how long the patient was present at the base before officials realized that their negative test result was actually positive,” as a specific timeline for the ordeal was not provided.
In the last 24 hours, the World Health Organization has created a moniker for Coronavirus, COVID-19. According to The New York Times, the organization says the name was created to avoid the stigma of identifying the disease with a particular location, animal, or group, while still keeping a pronounceable name.
“Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, according to the organization’s Twitter account.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, China’s communist government publicly announced Monday that 1,016 people have died from the Coronavirus since the disease began ravaging Wuhan, China, before spreading outside the region and into small pockets around the world. In total, the Chinese government has reported 42,638 infections. However, a peer-reviewed medical journal has previously estimated that the true number may be as much as four times higher.
According to The New York Times, the disease has already begun to throw a wrench into the multinational commodity markets that rely on Chinese industry to consume raw materials.
Prices for key industrial raw materials such as copper, iron ore, nickel, aluminum and liquid natural gas have plummeted since the virus emerged. Currencies of countries that export these goods at high rates, including Brazil, South Africa and Australia, are near their lowest levels in recent memory. And manufacturers, mining companies and commodity producers of all stripes are weighing whether they will be forced to cut back on production for fear of adding to a growing inventory glut.