A fifth person in Illinois has tested positive for the new coronavirus, state health officials announced Thursday.
The person is a Cook County resident in his 20s who flew into O’Hare International Airport earlier this month after traveling from Italy where he caught the illness, health officials said. He’s hospitalized at Rush University Medical Center in isolation. The state is awaiting confirmation of the positive result from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State health officials said they are contacting people who were on the same flight as the man, specifically those who sat two rows in front of him and two rows to the side. Those people will be monitored by public health officials for 14 days from the time of the flight to make sure they don’t develop symptoms, said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
A health department spokeswoman declined to comment Thursday on whether the man is a student, works or took public transportation or attended large gatherings recently, saying the department isn’t disclosing further details in order to protect the patient’s privacy and health information. Health officials are working with the man to track his movements in recent days and reaching out to those who were in close contact with him.
“If we believe there is an increased risk to the public surrounding this case, we will let the public know,” spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said in an email.
The first two cases of the illness, COVID-19, in Illinois were a husband and wife from Chicago. The wife transmitted the illness to her husband after returning from Wuhan, China, in January. They have since fully recovered.
The third and fourth cases are also a husband and wife, who are in home isolation and doing well, state health officials said. The man was previously hospitalized at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights. The CDC has confirmed one of those two cases, and the state is waiting on confirmation of the other. Illinois and other states are doing their own testing and sending positive results to the CDC for confirmation.
State health officials have been unable to link the third and fourth cases to any other known case, meaning “it is possible these cases may be due to community transmission in Illinois,” according to a news release.
The man who tested positive did not travel internationally or have close contact with someone known to have the virus, and likely acquired the infection “in the community, though it is not clear which community, whether in our state or another state to which he traveled,” Ezike said.
“Public health officials are taking measures to contain the virus among those who have tested positive but we’re also preparing for the virus to circulate in the community,” Ezike said.
Still, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the risk to the general public in Illinois remains low. Public health officials are monitoring people throughout the state who’ve traveled to areas affected by the illness or who’ve had close contact with people with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The newest Illinois patient was admitted to Rush early Thursday morning, Rush said in a news release. The hospital said it’s well prepared to address the situation.
“With 40 negative pressure rooms — where the air is sanitized and then exhausted outside the building rather than circulated within — and the ability to scale up further, our facilities are extremely well equipped should the presence of the virus in Chicago escalate,” Rush said.
As of Thursday, the state had tested 197 people for COVID-19. Of those tests, 165 came back negative and 27 were pending, according to the state health department. The state was monitoring about 280 people for symptoms.
Nationally, at least 148 people had tested positive for the illness as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That included 30 who caught the illness through travel, 20 who caught it from other people with known cases and 49 cases that were under investigation. The rest of the cases were among people who were repatriated from places such as the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Across the globe, there were more than 93,000 cases and nearly 3,200 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, and may appear two to 14 days after exposure. The CDC has said most cases seem to be mild, but people who are older and have underlying medical conditions are more susceptible to developing serious cases.
In Illinois, doctors are determining who should be tested based on symptoms, recent travel history and contact with those with confirmed cases. Illinois also recently started voluntary testing at select hospitals for patients with respiratory symptoms who test negative for the flu.
Federal officials are working on making commercial laboratory testing available, and when that happens, “the capacity for more people to be tested will increase significantly,” according to an Illinois Department of Public Health news release.
Ezike traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to push for additional federal resources for Illinois, including coronavirus test kits. Currently, there is some “triage” happening, with priority given to people who have traveled from one of the “hotbed” areas, and for those who are extremely ill and have no alternative diagnosis, Ezike said.
“One of my pleas, one of my requests, is that we need to have more reagents (substances used in testing) available so we can do broad, widespread testing,” she said. “That will be the goal, that will give us the best information about what is circulating in the community.”
Earlier this week, Ezike estimated that between the state and local health departments, more than $20 million had been spent to combat the coronavirus in Illinois. Officials are hoping some of the state’s outlay will be reimbursed by the federal government, and Congress on Thursday sent an $8.3 billion emergency aid package to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Pritzker, who briefed lawmakers and held a news conference in Springfield on Thursday shortly after the fifth positive case was announced, said he will meet Friday with many other elected officials about the coronavirus.
State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, a Republican from Elmhurst, urged Pritzker’s administration to make any existing written plans for dealing with the coronavirus, and future updates, available to lawmakers.
“Who has them? Where are they?” Mazzochi asked. “Because I think all of us as legislators want to be able to see them so that we can be prepared and not caught off guard.”
State Rep. Chris Welch, a Democrat from Hillside, said that while he hasn’t heard many questions from constituents about the coronavirus, he planned to take all of the information from Thursday’s briefing back to his district.
“When you’re hearing that airlines are canceling flights and conventions aren’t coming to Chicago because of this issue, you have to take it seriously,” Welch said.
Tribune reporter Jamie Munks contributed from Springfield.