Chinese Coronavirus Has NOT Reached New Jersey

A spokeperson from Hackensack University Medical Center confirmed that while a patient was tested for the Wuhan coronavirus, that patient does not have the disease.

To be tested, the patient must have the following:

• a fever of 100.4 degrees or more
• symptoms of lower respiratory illness such as a cough and shortness of breath
• a history of travel from Wuhan, China within the previous two weeks or close contact with a person under investigation for infection with the virus while that person was ill

Due to privacy laws, no information was available about whether the patient had traveled from China, or what her symptoms were.

In my obviously professional opinion, this sounds more like someone read about the coronavirus and freaked out. If the hospital can't confirm the patient even visited China or had contact with someone who did, it seems like this could be more psychosomatic than anything else. One case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the US (in Washington) and another person in Texas is being evaluated, so I'm not saying you should just shrug off the news, but you don't have to panic. Yet.

[via APP]

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