CDC: Quarantined Patient Released In San Antonio Later Tested Positive For Coronavirus
SAN ANTONIO (CBSDFW.COM) — The CDC announced Sunday that a previously quarantined patient in San Antonio has since tested positive for the coronavirus.
In a statement released Mar. 1, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that patient has returned to the Texas Center for Infectious Disease for additional testing and monitoring in order to verify the latest reading.
Nirenberg added that "the fact that the CDC allowed the public to be exposed to a patient with a positive COVID-19 reading is unacceptable."
COVID-2019 (formerly Novel Coronavirus 2019) UPDATE: We are still waiting on additional information from the CDC, but...
Posted by Mayor Ron Nirenberg on Sunday, March 1, 2020
The CDC said in a release that the patient had negative results for two tests and was released from a local healthcare facility Saturday. But later returned after a pending, subsequent lab test that came up positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.
This patient had been under isolation while being treated at a local medical facility for several weeks following a return to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, on a State Department chartered flight.
"At the time of discharge from the facility, the patient was asymptomatic and met all of CDC's criteria for release — resolution of any symptoms and two consecutive sets of negative test results, collected more than 24 hours apart. Following the patient's release, results of a subsequent sample were received, and determined to be weakly positive.Out of an abundance of caution, CDC decided to bring the individual back into isolation at a local medical facility."
The discharged patient did have contact with others while out of isolation, however the CDC along with local public health partners are following up to "trace possible exposures and notify them of their potential risk."
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