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Coronavirus patient broke quarantine, headed to event in  another US state: Officials

Larry Bowles, an equipment service worker for King County Metro, sprays Virex II 256, a disinfectant, throughout a metro bus at the King County Metro Atlantic/Central operating base on March 4, 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (AFP photo)

A Coronavirus patient broke quarantine in the US state of New Hampshire to take part in an event in the state of Vermont.

The incident took place on February 28, when the unidentified man attended an event at Dartmouth's business school, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

“Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center [DHMC] has announced that the first person identified as a positive case is an employee. DHMC has identified staff who may have been exposed through close contact with the patient and will monitor those individuals’ self-monitoring or self-isolating,” the department said. “At this time, DHMC is not aware of exposure to any patients in clinical areas.”

The man, who had recently traveled to Italy, the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak in Europe, apparently transmitted the virus to another person after breaking the quarantine.

“People in this situation — with only minimal possible contact with a case — are still considered to be at low risk for infection, but out of an abundance of caution the department is seeking contact from anyone in attendance,” Vermont Commissioner Mark Levine said in a statement.

Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency after the first death from Coronavirus in the state.

“The State of California is deploying every level of government to help identify cases and slow the spread of this Coronavirus,” Newsom said in a statement. “This emergency proclamation will help the state further prepare our communities and our health care system in the event it spreads more broadly.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security, a medical professional conducting Coronavirus screenings at Los Angeles International Airport has also tested positive for the virus.

“DHS is happy to report that this individual was highly trained and did everything right both on the job and when they began to feel sick. We are told the individual wore all the correct protective equipment and took necessary protections on the job,” Swift said.

There have been 153 confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S., according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.


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