China Coronavirus Update: 11th Case In US Confirmed In California

An eleventh person in the United States has been confirmed sick with the Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) currently rampaging throughout China and impacting 23 other countries and territories worldwide. The province of Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, are the epicenters of this global health emergency, which began with the first confirmed 2019-nCoV case in December 2019.

California Sunday confirmed three new 2019-nCoV infection as of late Sunday afternoon, making these the ninth to the eleventh U.S. cases of 2019-nCoV (also called the Wuhan coronavirus). The ninth victim is a woman in the San Francisco Bay Area who recently visited Wuhan on January 23, and is in the U.S. to see family, according to the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department. The woman's family members have also been isolated.

The tenth and eleventh cases are in San Benito County, reported NBC. These two cases are a husband and wife. The husband recently traveled to Wuhan; the wife did not, making this case a person-to-person transmission. San Benito County Public Health Services confirmed neither of the two has left the home since the husband's return from China.

The eighth case was confirmed on Saturday as a Boston man in his 20s, according to the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC). The man is a student at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts who returned recently from Wuhan.

BPHC said the man sought medical care after his return on January 29, and has been isolated since then. His close contacts have been identified and are being monitored for symptoms.

On January 27, President Donald Trump's claimed the outbreak is a “very small problem in this country.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the same day said the risk to the U.S. public from 2019-nCoV "remains low." CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield said it's not necessary for the general public to wear facemasks that help control the spread of the disease.

As of Sunday evening Beijing time, the coronavirus has killed 305 persons (including one Chinese from Wuhan who died in the Philippines) and sickened 14,556 globally. Of those infected, 14,380 are in China. Most of the sick are in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan.

There are a total of 176 other confirmed cases in 23 countries and territories outside mainland China. All territories and provinces in China have now been infected by the coronavirus.

There is also confusion as to the real number of victims from the coronavirus. On January 31, a study by University of Hong Kong scientists predicted as many as 75,815 people in Wuhan could be infected with the new coronavirus. This is five times fewer than the official figures released by China's National Health Commission (NHC).