A thirteenth American has been diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus infection spreading around the globe, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials said Tuesday.
The patient, of undisclosed sex and age, was under federal quarantine in California after returning from travel in Wuhan, China.
It comes as the first 195 Americans evacuated from the city, which is the epicentre of the outbreak, were set to be released from federal quarantine on March Air Base in California on Tuesday.
As of yet, it remains unclear whether the newly-diagnosed patient was among this first batch of quarantined people, or if they may have exposed others to the virus.
On Monday, Chinese officials confirmed that the Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, had had its deadliest day since the outbreak began. More than 100 people had died there, pushing the worldwide total past 1,000.
On top of declaring the coronavirus outbreak public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on January 30, the World Health Organization Tuesday said the outbreak stemming from China poses ‘a very grave threat to the rest of the world.’
The outbreak has now reached at least 24 countries outside China and three territories outside the mainland of the origin nation.
In an effort to contain the outbreak, which continues to creep toward pandemic status, Wuhan has been on lockdown since January 23.
American authorities have rerouted all flights from China through 11 airports, where passengers are now screened for a history of travel to the Hubei province, where the outbreak began, ostensibly at a Wuhan seafood and game market, and symptoms.
Anyone who has travelled to Wuhan within the past two weeks is placed under a federally mandated quarantine for 14 days – what scientists consider the outside bound of the virus’s incubation period.
People who have travelled to China within the past two weeks are subject to a self-isolation quarantine in their own homes for the same period of time.
And for the time being, foreign nationals who have been in China in the past two weeks are barred from entering the US.
