Ninth U.S. Case of Coronavirus Confirmed in Santa Clara County

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A woman in the San Francisco Bay Area who became ill after returning from a trip to China has become the ninth person in the U.S. to test positive for a new virus, health authorities said Sunday.

It’s the second coronavirus case announced in Santa Clara County in as many days but the two cases are not related, according to the county Public Health Department.

The woman, a visitor to the U.S., had recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. She arrived Jan. 23 to visit family, officials said in a news release.

She has stayed home since she arrived, except for two times to seek outpatient medical care. She has been regularly monitored and was never sick enough to be hospitalized.

“A second case is not unexpected. With our large population and the amount of travel to China for both personal and business reasons, we will likely see more cases, including close contacts to our cases,” said Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s health officer.

The first case in the Bay Area was a man who traveled to Wuhan and Shanghai before returning Jan. 24 to California, where he became ill, Cody said Friday.

The man was never sick enough to be hospitalized and “self-isolated” by staying home, she said.

The man left home twice to seek outpatient care at a local clinic and a hospital. Public health officials are now trying to reach anyone he may have come into contact with during those times to assess whether they were exposed to the virus.

Those people, along with the few members of his household, will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine.

Health officials believe it can take up to two weeks for someone who is infected to get sick.

The virus has infected almost 10,000 people worldwide and killed more than 200. The vast majority of the cases and all but one of the deaths have been in China. The first death outside China from the new virus was recorded Sunday in the Philippines.

Cody said there was no risk of infection for the general public from the Santa Clara County cases.

Nearly 200 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan are under a 14-day quarantine at a military base outside Los Angeles — the first by the government in half a century.

Other cases of the new pneumonia-like virus include two in Southern California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona and two in Chicago.