‘Coronavirus suspect’ now at Bellevue

The first person in New York City to undergo testing for the novel coronavirus is being treated in Bellevue Hospital, the city’s health commissioner said Saturday.

The patient — who is under the age 40 — fell ill with a fever, cough and shortness of breath — telltale signs of the illness — after arriving alone in the city from China, Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot said in a statement.

Testing showed the patient, whose name and gender were not disclosed, did not have the flu or a cold virus, so a test for coronavirus was conducted.

Results should be back from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as early as Monday.

“If this is a positive case, we will confirm that publicly right away,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Saturday night at a news conference at the hospital.

Officials were hopeful that even if the patient has the virus, the person hasn’t spread it.

“There was no one, apparently, at least based on what we know now, who would have been in that kind of close proximity” to the patient, de Blasio said.

The virus is spread only through droplets from a cough or sneeze.

The Bellevue patient is now the fourth possible case being monitored in New York state.

Eight confirmed US cases have been identified, the latest in Massachusetts, it was announced late Friday.

The Boston man sought treatment at a hospital shortly after returning from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the outbreak. He had contact with only a few other people before he went to the hospital, Massachusetts officials said.

Other cases in the US are in California, Washington state, Illinois and Arizona.

The death toll in China from the virus, which had not been seen before it appeared in early December, jumped to 304 people Saturday, while the number of confirmed cases worldwide soared to 14,380.

All told, 24 other countries have reported 134 cases.

Early Sunday, the World Health Organization reported the first death outside of China — a 44year-old man who died in the Philippines but who was believed to have been infected in Wuhan.

The rapid spread and concern about the potential for human-tohuman transmission outside China prompted the WHO to declare a global health emergency this past week.

The organization’s data show the coronavirus has spread far faster than SARS, which infected about 8,100 people in eight months, killing 774, in 2003.

“Countries need to get ready . . . for a domestic outbreak control, if that happens,” said the WHO rep in Beijing, Gauden Galea.

Also on Saturday, scientists at Hong Kong University published research that projects the coronavirus may have infected as many as 75,815 people in Wuhan. The city of 11 million people has been on virtual lockdown for weeks to stem the spread of the disease.

Ominously, the mayor of Huanggang, a neighboring city to Wuhan, predicted that a “significant increase” in confirmed cases will be announced Sunday and Monday, according to the Global Times, an English-language news outlet published by the Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily.

Between 600,000 and 700,000 people returned to Huanggang from Wuhan before the lockdown, the mayor said.

China has two hospitals under rapid construction in Wuhan, and officials are making quick repairs to a hospital in Beijing originally built to handle SARS, the Global Times said.

At least two other hospitals will soon open in Fuzhou, the capital of east China’s Fujian Province, and Harbin in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.

Beijing has criticized as “mean” Washington’s order barring entry to most foreigners who visited China in the past two weeks, but Australia took a similar step Saturday. Japan and Singapore have enacted similar measures.

Also Saturday:

■ Several countries, including Britain, South Korea, Singapore and India, evacuated hundreds of citizens from Wuhan. Britain withdrew staff from its embassy and consulates in China.

■ Thousands of Hong Kong hospital workers voted to strike starting Monday in an effort to pressure the government to close all borders with China to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

■ American Airlines canceled flights to Hong Kong through Monday, a spokeswoman said. Hong Kong flights will be reevaluated twice daily after that. On Friday, the airline cut off flights to mainland China through March 27 after its pilots sued to halt the service, citing the unknown health threats from the virus. Earlier, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines had suspended all flights to China.

■ Apple shut down all its official stores on the Chinese mainland through next Sunday.

■ Beijing’s local authorities asked companies to have staffers work from home until Feb. 10.