Two more people in Los Angeles County — including a second passenger-medical screener at LAX — tested positive for the coronavirus, public health officials announced Friday, bringing the county’s total to 13.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, head of the county health department, said the second patient was another traveler who recently visited northern Italy. The person was in the same group of travelers that resulted in seven previous positive tests for coronavirus, or COVID-19.
The county’s 13 cases break down as:
— eight people in the travel group to Italy;
— two contract employees who were conducting coronavirus medical screenings of arriving passengers at Los Angeles International Airport;
— two relatives of a person who lives outside the county and was also confirmed with the virus; and
— a traveler from the area of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. That person, the county’s first, has since recovered.
Ferrer stressed that all of the county’s cases have been traced to an exposure source, so there are no local incidents of unknown community spread of the illness.
All of the patients are under isolation.
Ferrer said the risk of contracting the illness in the county remains low, but she again stressed the need for people to practice good hygiene and for anyone who feels sick to stay home from school or work.