The coronavirus — which has killed more than 80 people in China so far and has resulted in more than 50 million Chinese citizens now effectively quarantined in the country — has reached the United States, with four states thus far confirming cases, including two new cases on Sunday in California and Arizona.
“The U.S. has five confirmed cases of the new virus from China, all among people who traveled to the city at the center of the outbreak, health officials said Sunday,” the Associated Press reports. “Two new cases were reported Sunday — one in Los Angeles County in California and the other in Maricopa County, Arizona.”
The newly confirmed case in Arizona, AP notes, involves someone connected to Arizona State University, located in Tempe, “who did not live in school housing and had a history of travel to Wuhan, China,” according to state health officials. The patient, officials said, is not severely ill and is currently at home but isolated in order to prevent further spreading of the virus.
“The department said it would not release potentially identifying information on the person, including the gender and age, and declined to say whether the person was a student or faculty member,” AP reports.
The newly confirmed case in Los Angeles — the second in California — involves a patient who reported feeling ill upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday, at which point the patient was taken immediately to the hospital. Officials are likewise withholding identifying information about the individual, though they have revealed that the patient traveled from Wuhan.
In a press conference Sunday, L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Dr. Sharon Balter addressed the new case. “Everything worked as it should,” said Balter, as reported by AP. “The patient presented for care, the patient was immediately transported to a hospital, the patient has remained in the hospital.”
The two new cases makes a total of five confirmed cases thus far in the U.S.: one in Orange County, California, another in Washington state (reportedly a male in his 30s), and another in Chicago (reportedly a woman in her 60s).
On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a statement confirming the five cases, all involving individuals who had traveled to the States from Wuhan:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Chinese authorities identified the new coronavirus, which has resulted in more than a thousand confirmed cases in China, including cases outside Wuhan City. Additional cases have been identified in a growing number of other international locations, including the United States, where 5 cases in travelers from Wuhan have been confirmed in four states (AZ, CA, IL, WA) as of January 26, 2020. There are ongoing investigations to learn more.
As reported by The New York Times Sunday, the communist Chinese government has expanded its quarantine to include around 56 million people.
“A top Chinese health official warned on Sunday that the spread of the dangerous new coronavirus, already extraordinarily rapid, is accelerating further, deepening global fears about an illness that has sickened more than 2,700 people worldwide and killed at least 80 people in China,” the Times reported. “The grim diagnosis came amid concerns that China’s efforts to contain the spread of the disease, despite a lockdown of unprecedented scope affecting 56 million people, may not only have come too late but could even make the situation worse, including by exacerbating shortages of medical supplies.”
Related: China Quarantines 56 Million, Cities Cancel Work For Weeks. Deaths, Infections Skyrocket.