A Boston man who recently traveled to Wuhan, China, is the latest person to be diagnosed with the coronavirus, and the eighth confirmed case in the United States, health officials said Saturday, according to multiple news reports.
The man is the first recorded diagnosis of the coronavirus on the East Coast, reports said.
Officials with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said the man is in his 20s, and that he sought medical care soon after his return from China.
He will be isolated from the general public until cleared by authorities.
Late Friday afternoon, the seventh case of coronavirus was confirmed in the U.S., shortly after the Trump administration declared the virus a public health emergency in America.
The seventh case of coronavirus, the first in the Bay area, was confirmed by Santa Clara County officials Friday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that an adult male resident had tested positive for the virus.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that have “monitoring the situation closely” his team opted to sign the public health order Friday afternoon. He also announced that the country will temporarily suspend entry into the country for those who pose a risk of the disease.
“At this time, the risk to Americans remains low, and we are working to keep it that way. We will continue our work to monitor, respond to, and mitigate the spread of the #coronavirus and ensure that Americans have the most accurate and up-to-date health and travel information,” Azar tweeted around 3:45 p.m. Friday.
Thousands of people have been infected globally by the virus over the last two months. More than 200 people have died, all in China.
Azar said his team would be responding to the “infectious disease outbreak” by identifying cases, isolating patients, diagnosing and treating them and contacting the trace.
Earlier Friday, the CDC ordered a federal quarantine order for all 195 people who were evacuated from China on a U.S. government-chartered flight earlier this week for American consulate staffers and private U.S. citizens from Wuhan.
The quarantine, the first order of its kind in 50 years, will last for 14 days from when the plane left Wuhan, Atlanta-based CDC officials said Friday.
The quarantine is being enforced at the March Air Reserve Base in Ontario, Calif.
The U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. consulate in Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak started, and other Americans. The plane landed Tuesday night in Anchorage for refueling and then proceeded onto the base.
The quarantine announcement comes after three of the nation’s biggest airlines — American, United and Atlanta-based Delta — announced they were suspending U.S. flights into China from late March into April.
Late Thursday, the the U.S. State Department late Thursday issued a "Do Not Travel" advisory for China due to the spreading outbreak.
Also on Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the deadly outbreak as a global health emergency. The declaration, officially called a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” helps the international agency mobilize financial and political support to contain the outbreak.
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Wuhan is the epicenter of a new virus that has sickened thousands and killed more than 200 people. China has cut off access to Wuhan and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the virus further.
Symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, and in more severe cases shortness of breath or pneumonia.
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The State Department’s travel advisory told Americans currently in China to consider departing using commercial means, and requested that all non-essential U.S. government personnel defer travel in light of the virus.
On Friday morning, China reported 9,692 confirmed cases with a death toll of 213, including 43 new fatalities. The vast majority of the cases have been in Hubei province and its provincial capital, Wuhan, where the first illnesses were detected in December. No deaths have been reported outside China.
China has placed more than 50 million people in the region under virtual quarantine, while foreign countries, companies and airlines have cut back severely on travel to China and quarantined those who recently passed through Wuhan. The virus is believed to have a two-week incubation period, during which those infected can pass on the illness even if they show no symptoms such as fever and cough.
On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it was authorizing the departure of family members and all non-emergency U.S. government employees from Beijing and the consulates in the cities of Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenyang. Staff from the Wuhan consulate departed earlier this week.
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The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution related to logistical disruptions stemming from restricted transportation and availability of appropriate health care related to the novel coronavirus,” the embassy said.
The level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory is the highest grade of warning.
