The Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer says she expects more cases in the United States of a dangerous new virus from China where the outbreak began. The Centers for Disease Control announced Friday a Chicago woman, who returned from a trip to China, was diagnosed with the coronavirus. So far there are five confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S. and no sign they have spread the illness to those around them. Fond du Lac County Public Health Officer Kim Mueller says she would anticipate more cases reported in the United States. “The state of Wisconsin is working on getting testing available. So if there are tests that are needed in Wisconsin they would be able to run them locally versus sending them down to the CDC,” Mueller told WFDL news. While CDC officials say the risk to the U.S. public remains low, the worse-case scenario is a pandemic. “Working through the idea of a pandemic novel virus circulating, that is stuff that we are talking about and running scenarios with the state and partnering communities,” Mueller said. “I think we have the process in place of what we would do if that does come to fruition, but it definately is scary as well.” For ongoing information about the 2019-nCoV, visit the Department of Health Services (DHS) Outbreaks and Investigations webpage.
