The first case of Wuhan coronavirus in the U.S. has been reported in Washington state, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday, NBC News reports.
The patient is a man from Snohomish County, Washington, The New York Times reported.
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 U.S. is the fifth country to report seeing the illness, following China, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.
It is unclear whether the patient has transmitted it to anyone else in the U.S.
But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday it fully expects to see more cases of the coronavirus in the U.S.
Late last week, U.S. heath officials began screening passengers from central China at U.S. airports. Officials around the world have implemented similar airport screenings in hopes of containing the virus during the busy Lunar New Year travel season. Screenings are to begin at additional airports immediately.
Indeed, the CDC said it has developed a new test that allowed it to identify the presence of the virus in the traveler from China in Seattle and plans to expand screening to airports in Atlanta and Chicago.
Last month, doctors began seeing a new type of viral pneumonia — fever, cough, difficulty breathing — in people who spent time at a food market in Wuhan. More than 275 cases of the newly identified coronavirus have been confirmed in China, most of them in Wuhan, according to the World Health Organization.
The count includes six deaths — all in China, most of them age 60 or older, including at least some who had a previous medical condition.
Officials have said it probably spread from animals to people, but this week Chinese officials said they've concluded it also can spread from person to person.
This report contains material from Reuters and The Associated Press.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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