The CDC confirmed another coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the United States, bringing the total to 15 cases. The patient is among a group of people under a federal quarantine order at JBSA-Lackland in Texas because of their recent return to the U.S. on a State Department-chartered flight.
People who lived or traveled in Hubei Province, China, are considered at high risk of having been exposed to this virus and are subject to a temporary 14-day quarantine upon entry into the United States. This is the first person under quarantine at JBSA-Lackland who had symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19. The individual is currently isolated and receiving medical care at a designated hospital nearby.
There will likely be additional cases in the coming days and weeks, including other people that recently returned from Wuhan. While 195 people were discharged from quarantine on Tuesday, more than 600 people who returned on chartered flights from Wuhan remain under federal quarantine and are being closely monitored to contain the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, at a news conference held on February 13, Michael Ryan, executive director of Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization (WHO), said the jump in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Hubei province in China between February 12 and 13 (a total of 13,332 new cases) is primarily due to a change in the way China is diagnosing and reporting on confirmed cases.
“In Hubei province only, a trained medical professional can now classify a suspected case of COVID-19 as a clinically confirmed case, based on chest imaging, rather than having to have a lab confirmation,” Ryan explained.
He added, “We understand that most of these cases relate to a period going back over days and weeks and are retrospectively reported as cases, sometimes back to the beginning of the outbreak itself. In the rest of China and the rest of the world, laboratory confirmation for reporting is still required.”
