A Chicago woman has become the second U.S. patient diagnosed with the new pneumonia-like virus from China, health officials announced Friday.
The woman in her 60s returned from China on Jan. 13 without showing any signs of illness, but a few days later she called her doctor to report feeling sick.
The patient is doing well and remains hospitalized “primarily for infection control,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner. People that the women had close contact with are being monitored.
Earlier this week, a man in Washington state was diagnosed with the virus after returning from a trip to China.
UPDATE:
Officials say the risk to the general public of contracting the coronavirus is very low at this time.
Anyone who has traveled to Wuhan, China and is feeling the symptoms of the novel coronavirus is asked to call their doctor.
Officials say it is likely there will be more cases reported in the U.S. in the coming days and weeks.
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today released the following statement after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the second case of coronavirus in the United States is in Chicago:
“We are monitoring the second confirmed U.S. case of novel coronavirus being treated at a Chicago hospital. First, we commend the Chicago hospital personnel for identifying this quickly. And we commend Mayor Lightfoot and others who chose to monitor visitors from Wuhan, China, traveling into Chicago, which is also happening at other major airports across the country.
“CDC has confirmed that they are sending a team to Chicago to talk to the patient and family in order to quarantine any potential spread, showing a timely response from Washington. We are in the earliest stages of measuring the impact of novel coronavirus, but it is being taken very seriously. We will keep in close contact with the public health agencies at the federal level and monitor this very carefully.”
