2nd Wuhan Coronavirus Case Confirmed in U.S. — 60 Suspected Across Nation

The Centers for Disease Control confirmed a second U.S. case involving the novel coronavirus affecting a 60-year-old woman from Chicago who recently returned from Wuhan, China.

A Chicago woman returned from Wuhan on January 13 and became symptomatic several days later, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. The woman traveled to the city that is now the epicenter for the outbreak that has left 26 people dead and at least 830 infected. She went to China to care for her sick father.

Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady told the local newspaper the woman is still hospitalized but is stable and is “clinically doing well.” She spent more than two weeks in Wuhan.

The patient in a hospital in Washington state, a 30-year-old man, also contracted the coronavirus after traveling to the same region in China. He became the first confirmed coronavirus case in the U.S. earlier this week.

The Chicago woman was reportedly not symptomatic during her return flight from China, Dr. Arwady disclosed. She began to feel ill a few days later and called her doctor. The doctor referred her to a hospital that began treatment and testing. The CDC confirmed the illness is from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus.

Officials report 63 other cases are under investigation to determine if they are connected to the coronavirus, according to Fox News. Those cases are spread out across 22 U.S. states.

Health officials call the situation a “serious public health threat” but said the immediate risk to the general public is “considered low at this time.” The CDC reports that 11 of the 63 cases tested negative for the virus.

At least one case is located in Texas where a student at Texas A&M University is being isolated after becoming sick following his return from Wuhan, Breitbart News reported. Brazos County Health Authority officials told Breitbart on Friday that the student is “recovering.” While the agency does not expect test results until Monday, officials said, “at this point, no news about their status is good news.”

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reports it is investigating a possible case after a patient reported traveling through Wuhan recently, according to WRAL. The patient is in isolation at Duke University Hospital.

“Although it is unlikely that this person was infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus, we are conducting testing out of an abundance of caution,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Zack Moore told the local news outlet. “If you haven’t traveled to Wuhan in the past two weeks, your risk of infection with this virus is very low.”

Elsewhere, health officials in Michigan report they are monitoring three potential coronavirus cases, Bridge (a non-profit Michigan news agency) reported. The three cases were initially reported in Washtenaw and Macomb Counties. Doctors said they expect test results to take several days.