WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2020) US health authorities are investigating up to 110 persons for suspected exposure to the new coronavirus although there are only five confirmed cases in the United States, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said on Monday.
"To date, we have a 110 of what we are calling Persons Under Investigation, or PUI, from 26 states," Nancy Messonnier, the director for Immunization and respiratory diseases at the CDC, told reporters. "This is a cumulative number and will only increase. We still only have 5 confirmed positives and 32 that have tested negative."
The CDC said on its website that the five cases involved US persons who had traveled back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The most recent US discovery of the infection was made in Los Angeles, California. Other states with cases are Arizona, Illinois and Washington.
The virus has so far killed at least 80 people and infected nearly 3,000 in China, and spread to more than a dozen countries.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Sunday that he was traveling to Beijing to discuss measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which started in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan.
