Wuhan Coronavirus epidemics: Two Cases confirmed in the U.S

A second case of the deadly new strain of coronavirus sweeping China has been confirmed in the U.S., health officials said on Friday.

A person who returned to the U.S. state of Illinois from Wuhan in central China, where the outbreak originated, is the second to be diagnosed with the new strain in the U.S., according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The patient returned from Wuhan on Jan. 13 and sought medical assistance after experiencing symptoms several days later, the CDC said in a statement.

The person is in a stable condition in hospital, it added.

Officials are working to identify people the patient had contact with since arriving in Illinois.

Five U.S. airports are conducting public health entry screening.

Travellers from Wuhan must now enter the U.S. through one of those airports.

The CDC recommends that travellers avoid all non-essential travel to Wuhan.

The health institute said that more cases are likely to be reported in the U.S. in the coming days and weeks, but added that the risk to the public is believed to be low.

The first U.S. case was detected in Seattle, Washington.

In China, 26 people had died from a lung disease linked to the virus as of Friday, with at least 830 people confirmed infected, according to the country’s National Health Commission.

The new coronavirus belongs to the same family of viruses that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a disease that infected 8,000 people and killed 800 globally in a 2002-03 pandemic that also started in China.

Cases of the disease have also been reported in other Asian countries and Saudi Arabia.

(dpa/NAN)