State Sets Up Medical Network For Rapid Coronavirus Testing
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- California health officials announced Thursday they have reached agreements with 16 medical laboratories throughout the state to form a diagnostic network for the rapid testing of patients for the coronavirus.
California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Sonia Angell said the new network, including the state's Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory in Richmond, should shorten the time to diagnose a patient's sample to two days.
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Currently, county and state health officials have had to send samples off to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where testing can take up to seven days.
"Providing this test in California will deliver more rapid test results to improve care of persons who may be sick with this new virus," said Angell, who also serves as California's State Health Officer.
Testing in the network's labs will begin at Feb. 12th.
Currently, six of the nation's 12 confirmed coronavirus cases are being treated in California. Two patients are from Southern California, two from Santa Clara County and a husband and wife from San Benito County are being treated at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center.
Globally, more than 28,000 people are infected and the death toll climbed past 560. The overwhelming majority are in China, but more than 200 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries.
Among the dead is a Chinese doctor who got in trouble with authorities for sounding an early warning about the outbreak.
The Wuhan Central Hospital said on its social media account that Dr. Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, was "unfortunately infected during the fight against the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection."
"We deeply regret and mourn this," it added.
On Thursday, Wisconsin health officials confirmed the 12th case in the U.S -- a Wisconsin resident who returned from a trip to China last week.
The adult patient went straight from the Madison airport to the University of Wisconsin Hospital emergency room to be tested for the virus and they have remained in isolation at home ever since, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said.
"They are doing well," Rhodes-Conway said. "They are still in isolation at home and will remain there until testing shows they no longer have the coronavirus."
State and local officials declined to release more details about the person, including their age and sex. The person lives in Dane County, where the capital city of Madison and the flagship University of Wisconsin campus is located, but officials would not say where exactly.
The person had mild symptoms, including fever, cough and shortness of breath, but is "doing well" and recovering at home, said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer in Wisconsin's Department of Health Services Bureau of Communicable Disease.
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