A charter flight from Wuhan, China, carrying approximately 200 U.S. citizens, taxis to a stop at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Wednesday morning Jan. 29, 2020.
Will Lester | Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images
U.S. and California health officials confirmed the seventh U.S. case of the coronavirus that has sickened about 10,000 people across the globe and killed at least 213.
The Santa Clara Public Health Department said Friday that a man who lives outside San Francisco tested positive for the coronavirus. The patient contracted the virus in Wuhan, China, and has been isolated at home since, county officials said at a press conference.
“We’ve been preparing for this possibility for weeks,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said. “Although we do understand this confirmed case may raise concerns, this one case in fact does not change the risk to the general public.”
The news came the same day U.S. health officials quarantined 195 Americans in California who were evacuated from Wuhan earlier this week and the Trump administration declared a federal health emergency.
“We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic, but we are hopeful still that this is not and will not be the case,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference call with reporters Friday. “While we recognize this is an unprecedented action, we are facing an unprecedented public health threat.”
Trump administration officials earlier Friday said they were issuing mandatory quarantines for any U.S. citizens who have visited Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, in the last 14 days. Travel restrictions were also being issued for anyone who visited elsewhere in mainland China over the previous two weeks. The administration plans to deny entry to foreign nationals who “pose a risk of transmitting” the virus in the U.S., administration officials said at a news conference a few hours after the CDC’s call.
This story is developing. Check back for updates.
