Bellevue patient cleared Person at city hospital tests negative for coronavirus
A suspected coronavirus patient at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital has tested negative for the fast-moving flulike disease.
The patient, a visitor from mainland China, was hospitalized with fever, cough and a runny nose, authorities said Saturday. But a test with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed no trace of the disease, city health officials said Tuesday.
“The response and care the patient received reflects how well the systems we have in place are working,” Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a statement. “We want to thank everyone for all they did, and we will keep New Yorkers informed as the situation develops.” Test results from two more patients in Queens were still pending.
“We’re relieved to hear that the person in question does not have the novel coronavirus,” Mayor de Blasio said. “I can’t say this enough: if you have the symptoms and recent travel history, please see your health provider immediately.”
The virus continues to make headlines worldwide. Japan said Wednesday 10 people on a cruise ship have tested positive for a new virus and were being taken to hospitals.
Japan’s Health Minister Nobukatsu Kato said all 3,700 people on the ship will be quarantined on board for up to 14 days under Japanese law. The 10 are among 273 people tested after one man who got off the ship in Hong
Kong was confirmed to have the virus.
Some tests were still pending. Those tested either had a cough or fever, which are symptoms of the new coronavirus, or had close contact with the man who stopped in Hong Kong. But the transmission isn’t clear, and the others may have gotten the virus when they got off the ship at other port calls in Vietnam, Taiwan, Kagoshima and Okinawa. The ship returned to Yokohama, near Tokyo, on Monday.
The new coronavirus has infected thousands in mainland China and caused scattered cases in Hong Kong and other places, mostly associated with travel to the central Chinese region where the outbreak has been most severe.
Deaths from the virus rose to 490 in mainland China early Wednesday and the number of new cases increased to 24,324, as China moved patients into newly built or converted hospitals in the hardest-hit city of Wuhan.
In Hong Kong, hospital workers are striking to demand that the border with mainland China be shut completely to ward off the virus that caused its first death in the territory. But four new cases of the virus without known travel to the mainland have been reported, indicating community transmission.