CHICAGO _ 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, 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.
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.
