Chicago Woman Becomes Second U.S. Case of New Virus From China

Courtesy: MGN

A Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new pneumonia-like virus from China. 

Health officials say the 60-year-old woman returned from a trip to China on Jan. 13 without showing any signs of illness, but a few days later she called her doctor to report feeling sick.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the woman is doing well, but is hospitalized to prevent spread of the virus and anyone she had close contact with is being monitored.

CDC officials say the risk to the U.S. public remains low but more cases are likely.

Previously, the Brazos County Health District in Texas said it was investigating a suspected case of coronavirus.

Health officials say the patient traveled from Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus originated. If the case is confirmed, health officials said that they will "promptly announce it."

Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a confirmed case of the virus in Washington State. 

The man returned to the Seattle area in the middle of last week after traveling to the Wuhan area, where the outbreak began.

The man is in his 30s and is in good condition at a hospital in Everett, outside Seattle.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it has received specimens for testing from several people in the U.S.

 

Earlier, Singapore’s Ministry of Health says the country confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, a 66-year-old Chinese national from Wuhan.

The ministry said late Thursday the man arrived in Singapore with his family on Jan. 20. It said the man is now in isolation in a hospital in the Southeast Asian city-state.

The statement said health officials are also investigating another suspected case, after a preliminary test for the virus was positive. That person is a 53-year-old woman from Wuhan.

China, meanwhile, has decided to lock down three cities including Wuhan that are home to more than 18 million people in an unprecedented effort to try to contain the deadly new viral illness that has sickened hundreds.

Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded Wuhan's train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances at 10 a.m. sharp. Only travelers holding tickets for the last trains were allowed to enter, with those booked for later trains being turned away. 

Normally bustling streets, shopping malls, restaurants and other public spaces in the city of 11 million people were eerily quiet. In addition to the train station, airport, ferry, subway and bus services were also halted.

Similar measures will take effect from Friday in the nearby cities of Huanggang and Ezhou.

In the capital Beijing, authorities canceled “major events" indefinitely, including traditional temple fairs that are a staple of Lunar New Year holiday celebrations,

The World Health Organization put off deciding whether to declare the outbreak a global health emergency, asking its expert committee to continue its meeting Thursday for a second day.

Late last week, U.S. health officials began screening passengers from central China at U.S. airports, including San Francisco. 

The head of a Chinese government expert team recently said that human-to-human transmission was confirmed in an outbreak of a new coronavirus.

State media said Monday that the leader of the National Health Commission team said two people in southern China caught the diseases from family members.

The English-language China Daily newspaper said the National Health Commission task force also found that some medical workers have tested positive for the virus.

More than 100 officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been stationed at airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, screening incoming passengers from Wuhan for any sign of the deadly coronavirus.

Since Friday, the number of known infections in Asia has more than quadrupled, with 217 cases confirmed in China and a few others in Thailand, Japan and South Korea, which reported its first case on Monday.

(The Associated Press, CBS News contributed to this report.)

 

 

Â