More U.S. Coronavirus Cases Emerge, as China's Death Toll Rises

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January 27, 2020 6:17 AM

Three more cases of the coronavirus were reported on Sunday in the United States, two in California and one in Arizona, bringing the country’s total to five, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More U.S. Coronavirus Cases Emerge, as China's Death Toll Rises

All three had recently been in Wuhan, health officials said. The three patients were all being kept in isolation.

A patient in Los Angeles County passed through Los Angeles International Airport from Wuhan on the way to a vacation elsewhere, Barbara Ferrer, the director of the county’s Department of Public Health, said at a news conference. The traveler returned to LAX on Jan. 22, wearing a mask, and approached airport staff about possibly having the virus.

The other California patient, in neighboring Orange County, was identified by the county health agency as a traveler from Wuhan.

There is “no evidence that person-to-person transmission has occurred in Orange County,” according to the agency.

The patient in Maricopa County in Arizona is an adult member of the Arizona State University community, health officials said.

Other cases have been found in Washington state and Chicago. The CDC has sent teams to each of the states to help trace and follow up on contacts of the infected patients.

The CDC said that just over 100 “patients under investigation” from 26 states were being monitored because they had traveled to Wuhan, or had contact with patients, and had symptoms like fever, cough or shortness of breath that could be caused by the virus.

So far, 25 of those under investigation have tested negative for the virus.

The risk to the general public is considered low, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Sunday at a news briefing. “But the threat is serious,” she said.

The CDC is urging the public to get flu shots, to help reduce the number of people seeking treatment for symptoms that might be mistaken for the new coronavirus.

The agency is also preparing test kits to be sent to state health departments so that they can test for the virus instead of having to send samples to the CDC for testing, but it will be a few more weeks before the kits are ready, Messonnier said.

As of Monday morning, the official count of confirmed cases across China stood at 2,744. The authorities in Hubei province put the death toll at 76 there, bumping the overall deaths to at least 80.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

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