COVID Cluster Atlanta Georgia ex-Milan Italy

[niman]

The two, who live in Fulton County, showed symptoms of the illness shortly after one of the people returned to Georgia after a trip to the Italian city of Milan, officials said.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/kemp-expected-address-coronavirus-late-night-press-conference/VqbHGt7Z0p8U9KTx6bClJM/

[niman]

By 

• Greg Bluestein
• Helena Oliviero

Two people who live in the same household in Atlanta are the first in Georgia to test positive for the new coronavirus, Gov. Brian Kemp and state officials announced Monday evening at a hastily arranged press conference. 

The two, who live in Fulton County, showed symptoms of the illness shortly after one of the people returned to Georgia after a trip to the Italian city of Milan, officials said.

Dr. Kathleen Toomey, head of the state’s public health department, said the patient who recently traveled to Italy detected the illness quickly, and “astutely” consulted medical officials. She stressed it was a travel-related case and not one linked from person-to-person contact in Georgia.

“I want to reassure you that they’re at home, in home isolation with other household members, with minimal symptoms so they’re not hospitalized,” she said. “The message to the public is still low-risk, low-transmission.”

State health officials have long braced for the possibility of local cases of the virus, which has infected nearly 90,000 people worldwide. More than 90 confirmed cases of the disease have been reported in the U.S., including six fatalities, as the virus spreads despite efforts to contain it. 

The illness, known as COVID-19, is characterized by fever and coughing and, sometimes, pneumonia and shortness of breath. Most of the cases have been in China, where more than 80,000 have been sickened and at least 2,800 people have died.

But it continues to spread globally and the total of confirmed cases outside of China has surpassed 7,000 cases in 58 countries. Flights have been canceled, travelers have been quarantined and lives turned upside down. 

The governor urged people who are exhibiting symptoms to call their medical provider, which “is exactly what happened in this case.” State officials would not disclose where the two people lived.

 

Kemp on Friday named a task force made up of several of his administration’s top deputies, along with health and school officials, to identify the best ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Georgia.

And President Donald Trump is set to visit the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday as he tries to calm growing fears about the outbreak. He’s also issued new restrictions on foreign travel and warned that additional cases of the illness are “likely.” 

A testing glitch

The virus has already disrupted lives in Georgia. 

More than 1,000 travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson, the world’s busiest airport, have been screened for the illness. Metro Atlanta school districts have sent emails to parents encouraging hygiene and warning of potential contingency plans should it become necessary to temporarily close. 

The state’s efforts to test for the disease were complicated by a major glitch in testing. The Georgia Public Health Lab recently received a flawed diagnostic kit from federal officials, meaning that all testing must be at the CDC.

The agency is awaiting new tests from the CDC, said state health department spokeswoman Nancy Nydam, and it should take about a week to conduct a quality assessment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also said it will allow hundreds of labs to test for the virus.

The governor said he recently briefed Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the White House’s response to the disease, about Georgia’s two cases.

“We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best,” he said. “This is not something we’re just now thinking about.”

Edited March 3, 2020 by niman