Patient in isolation being tested for coronavirus at Harborview
Jan 30, 2020, 6:49 AM | Updated: 12:24 pm
This undated handout photo from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a microscopic view of the Coronavirus at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. (CDC/Getty Images)
(CDC/Getty Images)
Staff at Harborview Medical Center set up containment Wednesday night to isolate a patient being tested for coronavirus, according to a hospital spokesperson.
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Sources tell KIRO 7 the patient walked into the emergency room complaining of respiratory symptoms.
“We are working in collaboration with Public Health–Seattle and King County, and are awaiting coronavirus test results from the CDC,” said Susan Gregg, Harborview’s director of media relations.
Greg told KIRO 7 she was unaware of the timeline the CDC typically uses to confirm test results. Many of the labs the CDC uses for infectious diseases are in Atlanta.
The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus outbreak a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern.”
For the first time in the U.S., coronavirus has spread from one person to another, health officials said Thursday.
The latest case — the sixth in the country — is the husband of a Chicago woman who got sick from the virus after she returned from the epicenter of an outbreak in China. There have been previous cases in China and elsewhere of the virus spreading between people in a household or workplace.
The other five confirmed U.S. cases are travelers who developed the respiratory illness after returning to the U.S. from China. The latest patient had not been in China.
Meanwhile, at Seattle – Tacoma International Airport, seeing entire planeloads of passengers wearing surgical masks or respirators is an increasingly common sight.
What to know about China’s Wuhan coronavirus
But the CDC and doctors warn that wearing a mask or a respirator is not effective in preventing infection from coronavirus or even the flu – because they say most people actually get sick when they touch surfaces, and then transfer a virus to their eyes or nose after touching their face.
“Wearing a mask when you don’t have any symptoms is not really that helpful,“ said Dr. Frank Esper, an infectious disease specialist.
“What is helpful though, is washing your hands,” he said.
Written by Gary Horcher. MyNorthwest and Associated Press contributed to this report.
