US confirms first case of China virus on American soil

WASHINGTON: US health authorities on Tuesday announced the first case of a person on American soil sickened by a new virus that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and intensified airport health screenings.

The man, a US resident in his 30s who lives near Sea le, is in good condition, according to federal and state officials.

The man is being “hospitalised out of an abundance of precaution, and for short term monitoring, not because there was severe illness,” said Chris Spi ers, a Washington state health official.

The man hospitalised in Washington state had travelled to the US from Wuhan, but did not visit the seafood market thought to be at the heart of the outbreak.

He entered the US on Jan 15 — two days before health screenings for those travelling from Wuhan began at airports in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco — and approached health authorities himself a er reading news reports about the virus.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong reported its first suspected case of the new virus yesterday in a man who arrived in the city from Wuhan via the cross-border highspeed railway.

Health secretary Sophia Chan said the 39-year-old man was “preliminarily positive”, but a final test result would only be known on Thursday.

The man and four family members had taken the highspeed railway from Wuhan to Shenzhen on Tuesday before transferring to another train that brought them to Hong Kong.