It looks like Missouri has a second case of the coronavirus known as COVID-19.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced Thursday night (March 12) that a person in his or her 20s who recently returned to Springfield from Austria was tested for the disease and the result is a presumptive positive.
A presumptive positive result means the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory tested the patient and it was positive for the coronavirus. However, the diagnosis is not considered official until the Centers for Disease Control, which is based in Atlanta, confirms it.
The first presumptive positive case was announced March 7 and since then has been confirmed by the CDC.
That case involves a woman in her 20s who recently returned to her St. Louis County home from Italy.
Parson said Thursday that 73 people in Missouri have been tested for the coronavirus, and 71 of those tests were negative.
Parson stressed that both positive cases in Missouri have been travel related.
“So far there has been no community person-to-person transmission in Missouri,” he said.
No cases had been reported in Jefferson County as of Thursday, said Kelley Vollmar, director of the county’s Health Department.
Vollmar said one person from the county had been tested for the disease and the test was negative.
Brianne Zwiener, communications specialist with the Health Department, said the person was tested because he or she recently traveled.
Health Department officials would not say where the person had traveled.
The Fox C-6 School District reported today (March 13) that a person who had contact with either a district student or staff member recently was tested for the coronavirus and the result was negative.
Fox district spokesman JP Prezzavento said the person had not been inside any of the district’s facilities.
He said the person had recently returned from a business trip outside the state but inside the U.S. The person was tested after showing symptoms similar to those someone with the virus would have.
Health Department officials would not say if the person connected to the Fox district was the same as the person the county reported being tested.
Worldwide, there had been 132,536 cases of the coronavirus and 4,947 deaths related to the disease as of Thursday, the World Health Organization reported.
As of today, there had been 1,629 cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., stretching across 46 states and Washington D.C., according to the CDC.
In addition, there had been 41 deaths linked to the coronavirus in the U.S., the CDC reported.
Parson said Thursday night that Missouri is able to test 1,000 specimens.
Vollmar said she isn’t sure how many test kits Jefferson County has access to, although she said kits have been provided to a regional health department and kits used to test Jefferson County residents most likely would come from the St. Louis County Department of Public Health.
She said residents with symptoms of the coronavirus are asked to call the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services hotline to find out how to be tested. The number is 877-435-8411.
Or, they may call their health care provider or their health department, officials reported.
Symptoms for the coronavirus, which may range from mild to severe, include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure, according to the CDC.
Health officials also stress the importance of taking steps to avoid contracting or spreading the disease.
“Wash your hands with soap and water,” Vollmar said. “Cover your cough when you sneeze with the crook of your elbow. Stay home if you're sick. This is really important for individuals and for businesses.”
Vollmar said she expects to eventually see cases of the coronavirus in Jefferson County.
“The reason I think there's so much concern about it is because it's a new virus; people haven't had a chance to develop immunity to it yet,” she said. “We don't have a vaccine. So, the normal things we would recommend folks to do for the flu, like get an immunization, are not available at this time. So, I think that makes it a little scarier for the public.”
However, Vollmar suggested residents remain calm and educate themselves about the coronavirus.
“The CDC has a fantastic resource on their website that has specific information for individuals and how they can protect themselves at home, how they can prepare at home,” she said.
If Jefferson County sees a positive case of the coronavirus, the Health Department would handle it like any other disease, said Jeana Vidacak, public health preparedness coordinator for the department.
“Even though it's new, it's the exact same process that we do every day with all kinds of other different pathogens,” she said. “For us, it really is normal operations. I mean, this is new; we're learning about it as we go, but our process is the same for any other investigation we do.”
Vidacak said information about a positive test result of any disease, like measles or the coronavirus, are reported to the Health Department by local providers or by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
“Our role is to look at that case and kind of go out from there to see who that person had contact with,” she said.
Vidacak said the Health Department has a team of three people who are available 24 hours a day if a positive case were reported.
The team includes Vidacak, epidemiologist Dylan Steigerwald and public health investigative nurse Tara Edmond.
“Our role as public health, in any sort of outbreak, we do investigation and surveillance,” she said. “So, we do this on a daily basis with all kinds of different diseases.”