Health officials Saturday confirmed an eighth case of the fast-spreading coronavirus in the United States in a Boston man who had traveled to China.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Boston Public Health Commission say they were notified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of positive test results late Friday.
The man, who is in his 20s, recently traveled to Wuhan, China and sought medical care soon after his return to Massachusetts, they said. He is being kept in isolation until he's cleared by public health officials.
The flu-like coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in a market that traded illegally in wildlife in Wuhan, has so far resulted in 259 deaths in China, the World Health Organization said Saturday.
All but one of the U.S. patients was believed to have contracted the disease while they were traveling in the Wuhan area of China. U.S. officials this week reported the first human-to-human transmission of the disease in the United States in Illinois.
Nearly 12,000 people have been infected globally, according to the WHO, with all but just over 130 of those cases occurring in China.
Concerns about the spread of the virus spurred the Trump administration to declare a public health emergency and bar entry to the United States of foreign nationals who have recently visited China. Despite that, health officials have said risks to the United States remain low.
In addition, U.S. citizens who have traveled within the past two weeks to Hubei province will be subject to a mandatory quarantine of 14 days, believed to be the incubation period of the virus, officials said.
Americans who visited other parts of mainland China will undergo special health screening upon their return, followed by up to 14 days of “monitored self-quarantine,” under the temporary restrictions.
On Friday, nearly 200 Americans evacuated earlier this week from Wuhan and voluntarily confined to a California military air base for 72 hours of health screenings were placed under a mandatory 14-day quarantine — the CDC’s first quarantine order in 50 years.