Wisconsin has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, state officials said on Wednesday.
The new patient, of undisclosed age and gender, is the twelfth confirmed case in the US after testing positive for the virus at University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS), the patient was in Beijing, China sometime in the past two weeks, where they came into contact with people now known to be infected with coronavirus.
It’s unclear if the patient would have been aware that these contacts were sick.
The patient is being isolated at home, said to be doing well, and not in need of hospitalization.
It comes the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it’s distributed coronavirus tests to more than 100 labs around the country.
The patient’s test came back positive on Wednesday, and Wisconsin officials said the person is ‘doing well,’ according to local Channel 3000.
Between the more widely distributed tests and the four additional flights bringing American evacuees from Wuhan, China, back to the US, CDC officials said an increase in cases – potentially a steep rise – is to be expected.
Wisconsin has reported its first case of coronavirus, bringing the US total to 12. State officials have not disclosed the age or gender of the patient, but said they were in Beijing, China within the past two weeks
With the addition of the latest case in Wisconsin, there are now 24,589 cases of coronavirus worldwide and 493 deaths
SURGE IN CASES EXPECTED AS MORE LABS GET CORONAVIRUS TESTS AND MORE EVACUEES ARRIVE
Emergency Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval was given to the CDC’s test for coronavirus as of Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, officials announced the test had been shipped to state labs, and that they expected an increase in testing and test results by the start of next week.
But as the test results of the new Wisconsin patient came back Wednesday, they likely were analyzed at one of the previously-equipped CDC labs.
So far, 10 people in Wisconsin have been tested for coronavirus. Seven thus far were negative. Officials said they are still awaiting the results of some tests.
Beginning on Sunday at 5pm, all US citizens arriving to the US from China were to be funneled through 11 international airports: JFK, Chicago O’Hare, LAX, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Honolulu, Atlanta, Dulles, Newark, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Detroit.
It remains when exactly or into what airport the newest coronavirus patient arrived in the US. They may well have reached the US before the new travel restrictions were enacted.
As of Monday, the CDC said that only one of the confirmed US cases of coronavirus had been detected via airport screening.
Another 167 have tested negative, 82 tests are pending, and the CDC is following 36 ‘people under investigation,’ according to the agency’s briefing prior to the Wisconsin case’s identification.
Dr Messonnier said Wednesday that she expects there will be more cases confirmed.
A deluge of those diagnoses may be on its way soon, as four additional planes repatriate Americans who had been trapped in Wuhan and as the newly-approved tests reach more labs.
‘We should not be surprised if there are cases’ from the flights, said Dr Messonnier.
‘Negative results do not preclude 2019-nCoV infection and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or other patient management decisions,’ the FDA said in a Tuesday evening statement.
ONE EVACUATED CHILD IN CALIFORNIA AND A NEW JERSEY WOMAN WITHOUT SYMPTOMS ARE IN QUARANTINE
‘That being said, there’s a child with a fever,’ she added, referring to a minor who is among the 195 Wuhan evacuees at March Air Reserve, and who was taken to a hospital and quarantined with a fever on Tuesday.
‘Those of you that have children know there are many reasons that children develop fevers and, as far as I understand, the child is actually doing pretty well.’
She also noted that, of the 11 confirmed cases, most had been doing consistently well and even said that those who had been in somewhat worse shape – potentially a reference to a California couple hospitalized Sunday night – were improving.
A woman has been placed under quarantine after flying from Hubei Province, China – where the coronavirus outbreak originated – to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Tuesday. Pictured: A United Airlines flight takes off at Newark, December 2019
The twelfth case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Wisconsin in a patient who recently traveled to Beijing. Pictured: Medical staff in protective suits treat a coronavirus patient at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, January 27
According to Dr Messonnier, the quarantined passengers from the first evacuation flight from Wuhan are ‘going on with daily life as best they can’ on March Air Reserve.
They are expected to be released by February 11.
Meanwhile, a woman has been placed under federally mandated quarantine in New Jersey after flying into Newark Liberty International Airport from Hubei Province – the region of China in which Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak is located.
She arrived on Tuesday and, as per protocols enacted by the Department of Heath and Human Services, was placed under federal quarantine.
She has displayed no symptoms and is being monitored somewhere in Essex County, New Jersey, state officials said.
MORE EVACUEES ARRIVE IN THE US AND ARE PLACED UNDER FEDERAL QUARANTINE
On Wednesday, another two flights full of a cumulative 350 or so Americans who had been trapped in locked-down Wuhan touched down back in the US.
They landed at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County Wednesday and will be staying at the base’s Westwind Inn.
Like the initial evacuation flight’s passengers, they will be held under mandatory quarantine for 14 days.
The State Department separately said it may stage additional flights on Thursday. This image shows one of the chartered flights carrying the Americans
It’s entirely possible if not likely that some will be positive for coronavirus, but those who do not develop symptoms and test negative will ostensibly be released on February 20.
More planes are expected to arrive this week from Wuhan at any of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, the CDC said Wednesday.
Federal officials have not disclosed where the passengers will be quarantined, but Washington State Patrol revealed on Tuesday that the Fire Training Academy near North Bend will serve as a quarantine facility there.
