Page 17 - HOH

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 3 March 2020

Continued from front ered to have contracted pressed concerns over the
Washington state now has the coronavirus with no patient's initial release in a
12 confirmed cases. known overseas travel. statement.
State and local authori- Alameda County declared As the fallout continued,
ties stepped up testing for a state of emergency on Vice President Mike Pence
the illness as the number Sunday following the news. and Health and Human
of new cases grew nation- In Oregon, the state Health Services Secretary Alex
wide, with new infections Authority said Sunday that Azar sought to reassure
announced in California, a second person in the the American public that
Florida, Illinois, Rhode Is- state tested positive for the the federal government is
land, New York and Wash- virus. The person is an adult working to make sure state
ington state. in household contact with and local authorities are
Authorities in the Seattle the first Oregonian to test able to test for the virus.
area reported four new positive and does not need Both said during a round of Travelers wear protective mask as they walk through in terminal
5 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Sunday, March 1,
cases Sunday night, includ- medical attention, the au- TV talk show appearances 2020.
ing the man who died. thority said. Sunday that thousands Associated Press
Two health care workers in Elsewhere, authorities an- more testing kits had been
California were also diag- nounced Sunday a third distributed to state and lo- ciate professor who an- ciate professor of epidemi-
nosed. Of the new Wash- case in Illinois, a second cal officials, with thousands nounced the preliminary ology at the Johns Hopkins
ington state cases, two in Rhode Island and a first more to come. findings on the virus in Bloomberg School of Public
were women, one in her case in New York as wor- "They should know we have Washington state, said on Health.
80s and another in her 90s. ried Americans swarmed the best public health sys- Twitter late Saturday that Dr. Adam Lauring of Univer-
Both were in critical condi- stores to stock up on basic tem in the world looking out genetic similarities be- sity of Michigan called the
tion. A man in his 70s was goods such as bottled wa- for them," Azar said, adding tween the state's first case findings "high quality work"
also in critical condition. All ter, canned foods and toi- that additional cases will on Jan. 20 and a case an- from scientists who've done
three were from the LifeC- let paper. be reported and the over- nounced Friday indicated similar work with the flu virus
are nursing facility in Kirk- The patients in Rhode Is- all risk to Americans is low. the newer case may have for years.
land, Washington, where land were on a school trip As the cases ticked up, descended from the earlier "They show their data and
health officials said 50 to Italy together in Febru- some Americans stocked one. The Jan. 20 case was they show their work," Lau-
people are sick and being ary. A third person from the up on basic supplies — the first known case in the ring said. "It's more than a
tested for the virus. trip is being tested, and the particularly in areas with U.S. series of tweets" because
On Sunday night, the Inter- school is shutting down for diagnosed cases — and "I believe we're facing an the researchers back up
national Association of Fire the week. began to take note of the already substantial out- what they found with data
Fighters said 25 members In New York, officials con- impact on daily life. Stores break in Washington State that they've shared online.
who responded to calls for firmed Sunday that a such as Costco sold out of that was not detected un- "If there's something wrong,
help at the nursing facility woman in her late 30s con- toilet paper, bottled water til now due to narrow case someone will find it."
are being quarantined. tracted the virus while trav- and hand sanitizer outside definition requiring direct Dr. Carlos del Rio of Emory
The first U.S. case was a eling in Iran. She has been Portland, Oregon, where travel to China," he said on University School of Medi-
Washington state man who quarantined to her home in a case was announced Twitter. cine said the findings are
had visited China, where Manhattan. Friday. Sports games and Bedford did not immedi- from respected research-
the virus first emerged, but The Centers for Disease practices were canceled ately reply to an e-mail re- ers in genomic sequencing
several recent cases in the Control and Prevention into the coming school questing an interview Sun- and they make sense be-
U.S. have had no known said Sunday that it was re- week. Some churches said day. cause of the geographic
connection to travelers. testing someone in San An- they would not offer com- Scientists not affiliated with proximity of the two cases.
In California, two health tonio, Texas, who had been munion because of fears of the research said the results "This is a good time to re-
care workers in the San released from isolation Sat- viral spread. did not necessarily surprise inforce the things we all
Francisco Bay area who urday but later returned af- As Americans prepared, them and pointed out that should be doing to stop the
cared for an earlier coro- ter a lab test was "weakly researchers at the Fred for many people — espe- spread of flu. Wash your
navirus patient were di- positive." The patient had Hutchinson Cancer Re- cially younger, healthier hands. Don't touch your
agnosed with the virus on been treated a local medi- search Center and the Uni- ones — the symptoms are face. If you have a cold,
Sunday, the Alameda and cal facility for several weeks versity of Washington on not much worse than a flu stay home ... It's a good
Solano counties said in a after returning from Wuhan, Sunday said they had evi- or bad cold. time to remind ourselves of
joint statement. China. The agency said the dence the virus may have "We think that this has a that," he said.
The health care workers are patient had met the crite- been circulating in the pretty high rate of mild Pence, named by the pres-
both employed at North- ria for release and was as- state for up to six weeks un- symptoms and can be as- ident to be the point-per-
Bay VacaValley Hospital in ymptomatic. Bexar County detected — a finding that, ymptomatic. The symp- son overseeing the govern-
Vacaville, California, and Judge Nelson Wolff told if true, could mean hun- toms are pretty non-specif- ment's response, said more
had exposure to a patient the San Antonio Express- dreds of undiagnosed cas- ic and testing criteria has than 15,000 virus testing kits
treated there before be- News that the patient was es in the area. They posted been pretty strict, so those had been released over
ing transferred to UC Davis a woman who had come their research online, but it combinations of factors the weekend. And, the ad-
Medical Center in Sacra- into contact with around was not published in a sci- means that it easily could ministration is working with
mento, the statement said. a dozen people at a hotel. entific journal or reviewed have been circulating for a commercial provider to
That patient was the first Both Wolff and San Antonio by other scientists. a bit without us knowing," distribute 50,000 more, he
person in the U.S. discov- Mayor Ron Nirenberg ex- Trevor Bedford, an asso- said Justin Lessler, an asso- said.q