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Indiana officials Friday morning urged the public to take necessary precautions as the first person in the Hoosier state has tested presumptively positive for coronavirus.
The patient is an adult from Marion County who traveled to Boston where he attended an event, officials said during an 11 a.m. news conference. He is in stable condition, is self-isolated and does not require hospitalization.
The risk to the public is low, health officials said. They said they have no indications so far that the man transmitted the disease to anyone else and that the diagnosis did not come as a surprise.
“The question has never been if Indiana would get a case but when we would see one,” said Dr. Kris Box, Indiana State Health Commissioner. “This is an isolated case at the time.”
However, she added, that we could expect to see more cases in the future. There have been more than 200 cases of the disease in the United States and more than 100,000 across the globe since the outbreak began in China in December.
More than 20 states have seen confirmed cases of the illness.
The Indiana man attended a conference in Boston in recent days and flew home on Wednesday, health officials said. He did not go to work on Thursday.
Dr. Ram Yeleti, chief physician executive with Community Health Network, said the man called Thursday night concerned that he had COVID-19 symptoms. He was taken through a side entrance of Community Hospital North and did not have any contact with other patients or caregivers.
He had developed a sore throat, a low grade fever and a cough. He had three tests to confirm he was infected with the virus, officials said. He is not in the highest risk age category.
Additional symptoms of coronavirus include shortness of breath.
The patient tested positive at state Health Department laboratories, but samples will be sent to the CDC for final confirmation.
Coronavirus in U.S.: How Hoosiers should prepare and what to expect
Gov. Eric Holcomb has declared a public health emergency to ensure the state receives additional funding if needed. Congress passed a roughly $8 billion supplemental spending package on Thursday that aims to combat the spread of the coronavirus. It awaits President Donald Trump’s signature.
The Indiana State Department of Health received COVID-19 test kits Saturday and has tested 12 people so far and is monitoring 35 others, officials said Friday.
Indiana health officials are reminding people to stay home if they are sick. If you think you may be sick, please call ahead to your doctor, a hospital or your health department so medical providers can be prepared to receive you and avoid exposure to health-care workers or patients.
Officials also recommended that people limit person-to-person contact, such as shaking hands or hugging. Wash your hands and make sure the hand sanitizer you use is 60% alcohol content or higher.
“I need the public to be patriotic and do the things they need to do to protect themselves,” said Marion County Public Health Department Director Dr. Virginia Caine.
Since the new virus was first identified in late December in Wuhan, China, it has spread rapidly, infecting more than 100,300 people and killing more than 3,400, according to a tracking tool from Johns Hopkins University. The first United States case, a man who had traveled to Wuhan to visit family, occurred in mid-January in Washington state.
The United States has had 233 cases, some of them in people who have been repatriated from China or cruise ships where outbreaks have occurred.
On Thursday, Indiana State Department of Health officials said that six residents who had been aboard the cruise ship the Grand Princess would be under a 14-day home quarantine. At least two travelers on that boat developed COVID-19 infections, one of them deadly.
There have been 12 deaths in the U.S., most of them in Washington State, where an outbreak spread through a long-term care facility.
In states that have seen multiple cases of the illness, local health departments have advised family members and others who have had contact with infected people to quarantine themselves in an effort to curb the spread of the disease.
The United States has issued travel warnings for China, Iran, South Korea and Italy, countries that have seen thousands of cases of the illness, saying that all nonessential travel to those countries should be avoided. Federal health officials are asking people who come back to the United States after travel to those countries to remain at home for 14 days after their return.
This story will be updated.
Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at 317-444-6354 or [email protected]. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.
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