LANSING (WWJ) - There are still no confirmed cases of a deadly new virus in Michigan.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that the final test results on a patient from Oakland County are in, and came back negative for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
Officials said that person was hospitialzed tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after traveling to Wuhan, China, where the virus originated.
"It was a traveler who was symptomatic," explained Oakland County Medical Director Dr. Russell Faust. "So those folks are kind of in the medial risk group, (but) if they're symptmoatic they're considered a higher risk."
Overall, there have been 64 referrals for coronavirus evaluation in Michigan. Five patients were approved for testing at the CDC, and all five returned negative results.
MDHHS said the other four cases that came back negative included three in Washtenaw County and one in Macomb County.
Those five are in addition to an airline passenger who tested negative for the virus after landing at Detroit Metro Airport.
While the CDC, MDHHS and the state's healthcare community continue to actively monitor the outbreak, Faust cautioned people to keep the concern over the new Coronavirus virus in perspective.
"This is a bit of an unknown," Faust said, "and everybody's scared about it despite the fact that last year 60,000 people died in the country from flu. Half-a-million were hospitalized and we're not upset about that; we're upset about something that's a very low risk to the American public."
Faust said officials in Oakland County are prepared for any possible outbreak.
"It comes out of the experience we had in expecting people back from Africa, for example, during kind of the Ebola scare," he said.
Here is a look at some statistics as of 2/10/20:
- Sunday was a record-breaking day for the Coronavirus in China; 97 died Feb. 9 as a result of the illness.
- China has confirmed over 40,000 cases of the virus; over 3,000 alone in the last 24 hours. More than 900 have died, all in China except for one in Thailand. One of the dead is an American that lived in central China.
- 12 cases of the deadly virus have been confirmed so far in the United States; none of them in Michigan.
- All passengers on a cruise ship docked in Japan are being held on the boat. 135 people on the Diamond Princess are confirmed to have the virus; 11 of them are American.
Patients with confirmed infection have reportedly had mild to severe respiratory illness with symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath.
Anyone who believes that they have symptoms and have recently traveled to Wuhan, China, or have been in contact with someone who has had the virus, should call their healthcare provider or hospital prior to arriving so that the appropriate preventive measures can be put in place.
As information on this outbreak will continue to change, the public is urged to visit Michigan.gov/Coronavirus and CDC.gov/Coronavirus for updates.
