Health officials are conducting tests to determine whether a person in San Diego County has the new strain of coronavirus that has caused at least 100 deaths since it was discovered late last year in Wuhan, China.
The potential case was reported Sunday to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, according to a statement Monday night from county officials.
If confirmed, the infected person in San Diego County would be the sixth confirmed case in the United States, though more than 110 people were being monitored Monday for possible infection. So far, all deaths from the virus have occurred in China.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing a specimen from the possibly infected person in the San Diego region, and results of the test are expected back Tuesday, county officials said in the statement.
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The individual, who “is currently in isolation at home,” had recently traveled in central China, the epicenter of the outbreak, according to officials.
“The risk of infection for the general public (is) minimal,” Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s chief public health officer, said in a statement. “If you have not traveled to an area where the virus has been detected or had close contact with a patient who tested positive for this type of coronavirus, the risk of infection is very low.”
As of Monday morning, a total of 110 people in 26 U.S. states were being monitored for possible infection with the new strain of coronavirus, according to the CDC. Five people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus, including one each in Washington, Illinois, Arizona, Los Angeles County and Orange County.
The new strain of coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, can cause respiratory illness and pneumonia. It was originally thought to be spreading only from animals to people in central China, but there are now indications it is also spreading among people.
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On Tuesday morning, officials in China said the number of infected people in that country grew to more than 4,500, and the death toll from the virus rose to at least 106.
In people who are young and healthy, the virus does not seem to cause severe illness, with symptoms including fever, coughing and shortness of breath. Most of the deaths tied to the virus have been in the central Chinese province of Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital.
San Diego County health officials, working with the CDC and California Department of Public Health, recently implemented a plan to “identify, isolate, test and investigate” possible cases of the virus. Last week, the Health and Human Services Agency issued a health alert to local doctors and hospitals asking them to be on the lookout for potential cases in people who have traveled to areas where the virus has been reported.
After the report of the potential case Sunday, a specimen was collected from the individual and sent off for testing to the CDC, the “only entity capable of testing for this novel coronavirus,” according to the statement from the county.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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