CDC confirms new U.S. coronavirus patient, changes how it reports cases

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today confirmed a new travel-related case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in northern California. The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services said it is also monitoring one other person who had close contact with the patient. 

CDC changed how it reports confirmed cases in the U.S. — counting the 21 cases from quarantined repatriated citizens separately from the 13 identified in the U.S. by health networks — to better help monitor for community spread in the U.S. Ian Brownlee, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the Department of State, said repatriation in these scenarios is not standard and pointed towards an updated travel alert advising U.S. citizen to reconsider travel by cruise ship to or within Asia. 

While the U.S. has to date only seen travel-related or close-contact COVID-19 cases, CDC continues to prepare for the possibility of wide spread within communities. CDC noted that it would soon release mitigation guidance to prevent pandemic COVID-19 based on an update of its current pandemic influenza guidelines. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today, “Although the total number of COVID-19 cases outside China remains relatively small, we are concerned about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case.”

CDC yesterday released ICD-10-CM diagnosis coding guidance for COVID-19 infections and deaths, developed with input from the AHA, and plans to release a new unique diagnosis code for the virus in October. For the latest information and resources, visit AHA’s coronavirus webpage.