The novel coronavirus has spread for the first time in the U.S. through person-to-person contact, the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today (Jan. 30) during a teleconference.
The virus was confirmed in the husband of an Illinois woman who had contracted the infection after traveling to China. Her husband is the 6th person in the U.S. to be confirmed for the virus and was recently admitted to the hospital and remains stable.
The other four U.S. patients confirmed with the virus had also traveled to Wuhan and had returned to their homes in California (two of the four), Arizona and Washington state.
CDC experts had expected that some person-to-person spread would occur in the U.S., Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of CDC said during the teleconference. “We understand that this may be concerning,” he said. “But based on what we know now our assessment remains that the immediate risk to the American public is low.”
Elsewhere in the world, there has been some limited person-to-person spread of the new virus outside of China. There have been nine cases in which close contacts of travelers to China were infected, Redfield said. “However the full picture of how easy and how sustainable this virus can spread is unclear.”
Public health officials are monitoring the close contacts of this new patient and there are 21 patients in the state that are under investigation for the new coronavirus, said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health during the teleconference. The department is not recommending people in the general public to take additional precautions such as canceling activities.
“This person to person spread was between two very close contacts a wife and husband,” Ezike said. “The virus is not spreading widely across the community.”
This is a developing story, check back for more updates.
