Louisiana officials take precautions around coronavirus; risk in state is 'negligible' (2024)

Officials from the World Health Organization on Thursday declared the coronavirus a global health emergency as governments in the U.S. and overseas looked to additional measures to slow the spread of the deadly illness.

The declaration, which serves as a signal to all United Nations members that the outbreak is serious,came shortly after health officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first person-to-person transmission in the U.S. That patient is the husband of the first U.S. case, a woman who had recently returned to the U.S. from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Louisiana health officials have warned the public and healthcare providers to watch for signs of the virus, which mimics flu symptoms like coughing, fever and shortness of breath. At the same time, they have said there aren't any signs that the virus has made its way to the state and that there is little to no risk to residents.

"At the moment, the risk in Louisiana is negligible, if any," said Dr. Joe Kanter, assistant state health officer with the Louisiana Department of Health. "It's new and changing quickly ... but there are no confirmed cases in Louisiana and no patients under investigation."

State health officials emphasized that the flu, which hit Louisiana hard this season, is a greater threat to residents than coronavirus at the moment.

"Year after year, many more people in Louisiana are hospitalized and die from the flu than from novel outbreaks," said Kanter. "We’re still in the middle of flu season. I don’t want people to take their eye off the ball of what the real risks are."

So far, the CDC has tested 165 U.S. patients for coronavirus, turning up 68 negative results. The tests in the other cases are still pending. Of the six confirmed cases in the U.S., those people reported having mild symptoms.

"Several of the ... people in the United States are just sitting in their hospital room playing video games until their fever goes away," said Dr. Frank Welch, Louisiana's medical director for community preparedness.

Welch said that if someone tests positive for coronavirus in the state, plans call for placing the person in a quarantine area of a hospital. Doctors and nurses will also be given added protection to avoid contracting and spreading the disease.

The state Department of Health has instructed every doctor and hospital to ask patients experiencing flu-like symptoms if they recently traveled to China or have been around someone who was there in the past 14 days.Health officials believe the incubation period for the virus is two to 14 days.

Several universities, including LSU, have also issued advisories to students and faculty to avoid non-essential travel to China.

LSU is monitoring developments for planned study-abroad trips scheduled for April, a school spokeswoman said.

The CDC has instructed air travelers to take precautions such as frequently washing their hands and covering their mouth when they cough or sneeze.

There are no Louisiana airports with direct flights from China. Passengers on all flights from China are now being screened as soon as they land in the U.S. Officials check them for fever and then ask them to complete a questionnaire. Anyone who tests positive for the disease is supposed to be taken to a hospital in that city.

Ports in Louisiana are also increasing their screening under a mandate from the U.S. Coast Guard. Any ship that enters the Port of New Orleans that has visited China within the last five stops was sent a notice from the Coast Guard with a reminder that illnesses within the last 30 days must be reported to the CDC. Other ports around the country are releasing similar notices.

The virus that has struck in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China, is from a family of viruses that includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

In China, more than 9,800 people have been sickened and 200 have reportedly died from the virus. Officials are trying to contain the virus by halting flights to the U.S. from Wuhan.

The WHO on Wednesday expressed serious concern about the latest global health threat after the illness surpassed the number of people sickened by SARS during the 2002 and 2003 outbreak and after the new virus spread to other countries.

During that outbreak, China was criticized by theUnited Nation's global health body for hiding the magnitude of the epidemic.

To date, about 99% of the cases are in China, though there are also cases in 21 other countries. The WHO's Dr. Michael Ryan estimated the death rate of the new virus at 2% but said the figure was preliminary. With fluctuating numbers of cases and deaths, scientists are only able to produce a rough estimate of the fatality rate and it’s likely many milder cases of the virus are being missed. In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10% of people who caught it and MERS killed about 35%.

TheCDC has reported casesof coronavirus in Arizona, California, Illinois and Washington, as well as a few dozen false alarms in other areas.

Officials speculate coronavirus may have come from animals and then jumped to humans before spreading from person-to-person. Though contagious, health officials believe it’s spread through very close contact and long exposure.

Researchers in several countries have been racing to develop a vaccine for the illness, as world health leaders continue to work to curb its spread.

This story has been updated with current numbers of confirmed cases.