LANSING, Mich. Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services said Saturday that there are 325 people in the state being monitored for the new coronavirus, now known as COVID-19.
These people are classified as “medium risk” at this point, which means that they are all residents who have been in mainland China for the past two weeks or were passengers on a cruise ship with a confirmed COVID-19 case.
“These traveler referrals meet the” medium “or” low “risk criteria for COVID-19 monitoring,” said Lynn Sutfin with MDHHS.
Suftin said that none of the individuals were placed in a quarantine facility because the screening process found that none of them were at high risk. However, they are asked to practice home quarantine as much as possible.
Local public health officials contact people daily for two weeks to check for symptoms. They are monitoring people’s health by checking: if they have a temperature, a cough or difficulty breathing. Once MDHHS receives a referral for someone who may have been exposed to coronavirus, they are under the jurisdiction of a local health department.
The Michigan health department has already tested five people who met the CDC criteria for coronavirus tests. All five results turned negative.
The virus, which emerged in China in late 2019, has infected over 77,000 and killed over 2,000 in China. In the United States, the CDC reported 13 cases of infection identified for the first time on U.S. soil and 21 cases of infection in the United States evacuated from abroad to America.
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The CDC says it is reporting the virus in two categories to accurately describe how it is spreading.
“We are not yet seeing the spread of the community here in the United States, but it is very probable, even probable, that it will eventually happen,” said Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases of the CDC. “Our goal continues to slow the introduction of the virus into the United States. This is gaining us more time to prepare communities for more cases and possible sustained spread.”
Messonnier said the CDC was working with state and local health services to respond to cases in the United States and prepare for “the possibility that this outbreak could become a pandemic.” He called the virus a “tremendous threat to public health”.
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