Today the World Health Organizations announced the official name for the novel coronavirus – COVID-19. The novel virus first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019, thus far, killing a thousand people there. Health officials did not want to stigmatize people, an animal or a geographic area with the name. The acronym is for corona (CO), virus (VI) and disease (D), which 19 being the year it emerged.
Yesterday in the U.S., a man became the 13th confirmed COVID-19. The patient returned to the U.S. on Feb. 5 during the first evacuation flight from China to a Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, where they were to undergo two weeks of quarantine. Local officials said the patient was mistakenly released after initial tests indicated the person was not infected. That patient is said to be doing well and is back in the care of health officials for observation and isolation until cleared for release by the CDC.
Thus far, California, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and Wisconsin are states with patients confirmed COVID-19 virus cases. Most had traveled from Wuhan China to the U.S., the other two were infected by person-to-person transmission.
