Coronavirus USA Update: 200 Monitored In Georgia, New Case Confirmed In California

Health authorities in Georgia focused their gaze anew on the threatening Novel coronavirus outbreak and the 200 Georgians that recently returned from China, even as it copes with a dangerous flu season that's seen 1,375 of its residents sent to hospitals. The Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH) said 42 Georgia residents died from the flu from Sept. 29, 2019 through January 25.

GDPH said the Georgia residents that traveled to mainland China went nowhere near Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei. GDPH said the Georgians have shown no symptoms of the coronavirus and have self-quarantined themseves inside their homes.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) self-quarantine means staying at home for 14 days, the illness’ incubation period, and avoiding direct physical contact with other persons.

Since February 2, CDC has quarantined all U.S. citizens returning home from visits to Hubei. Those that have been to other parts of China are subject to “proactive entry screening” and up to 14 days of monitoring and self-quarantine.

GDPH affirms Georgia has no confirmed cases within its borders of anyone afflicted by Covid-19. There are, however, two Georgia residents confirmed to have been infected by the highly-contagious coronavirus.

Both these people, a husband and wife who are each 80 years-old, are aboard the quarantined cruise ship, Diamond Princess, docked at the city of Yokohama in Japan. Clyde and Renee Smith haven't experienced symptoms and are doing well despite having tested positive for the coronavirus, said their son, David.

They're among the more than 400 Americans quarantined on that cruise ship since last week. Of the 3,700 passengers and crew aboard this pleasure boat, 174 have tested positive for Covid-19, also called the Wuhan coronavirus for the Chinese city where the outbreak began in December 2019.

California has also recorded its seventh confirmed case of the coronavirus and the 13th in the U.S. CDC has confirmed this new infection with Covid-19 (formerly called 2019-nCoV). It said the patient who was under a federal quarantine order, recently returned from Wuhan. This brings the total of number of Covid-19 cases in the United States to 13.

CDC said it's conducting a thorough contact investigation of the person who tested positive to determine contacts and to assess if those contacts had high risk exposures.