First Wuhan coronavirus case confirmed in United States as authorities say threat to public from deadly pneumonia still ‘low’
- First US case of Wuhan coronavirus reported in Washington state after man in his 30s was hospitalised in Seattle on Sunday
- The man did not visit any of the markets connected to the virus while in Wuhan, nor did he know anyone ill, and only travelled from that area, authorities said
Public health officials in Washington state confirmed on Tuesday the first case of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States.
The patient was admitted to hospital on Sunday, after arriving in Seattle from Wuhan, China, on January 15, officials at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
The man, a US resident in his 30s, “is in good condition and hospitalised out of an abundance of precaution and for short-term monitoring”, a local health officer, Chris Bitters, said. “He reported that he did not visit any of those implicated markets [in Wuhan] and did not know anyone that was ill. He was just travelling from that area.”
Initial transmissions of the virus have been traced back to Wuhan’s Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, which has since been closed. Weeks after the market in the city in central China became “ground zero”, the authorities said human-to-human transmission played a role in the outbreak.
The CDC had received samples of the previously unknown virus the day before the patient sought medical attention in Seattle for the symptoms he recognised in reports about the illness, Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases said. That enabled health authorities to confirm the diagnosis on Monday.
CDC officials called the case’s risk to the general public “low” because he was admitted to hospital early and had been very cooperative with health authorities.