The 13th case of the novel coronavirus in the United States has been detected in California, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
In a statement, the CDC said the patient was among the U.S. citizens who were recently evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the 2019-nCoV outbreak that began in December, and was under a federal-imposed 14-day quarantine.
"CDC is conducting a thorough contact investigation of the person who has tested positive to determine contacts and to assess if those contacts had hight risk exposures," the statement read.
The CDC confirmed to UPI that the patient was one of the hundreds of U.S. evacuees under quarantine at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif.
More than 800 U.S. nationals have been repatriated from Wuhan since Jan. 29 when the first evacuation flight arrived at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement, adding the most recent evacuation flights landed Friday.
News of the infection comes as the first batch of evacuees plans to be released on Tuesday from the March Air Reserve Base.
A total of 195 U.S. nationals, mostly workers with the U.S. State Department and their families, will be released Tuesday after none and tested positive for the virus, Riverside County Public Health Office Cameron Kaiser said.
He said two individuals with symptoms were retested with their results also being negative.
"We are working with state and federal partners to take every precaution to protect this community, and will take immediate action if any person being monitored develops symptoms of 2019-nCov," he said in a letter to the local community. "So far, no cases of nCoV have been detected, and we don't expect it to happen, but we are ready if it does."
Evacuees have also been quarantined at Nebraska's Camp Ashland.
Last week, the CDC confirmed the United States' 12th case of the coronavirus as an adult in Wisconsin last week, stating it is believed the person came into contact with an infected individual while traveling to China.
China on Tuesday confirmed that more than 1,000 people have died amid the outbreak with tens of thousands more infected.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
