The United States says 11 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in five states, and that health officials are awaiting test results on dozens more possible cases.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said six of the coronavirus cases have been confirmed in California. Illinois has announced two cases, and officials in Washington State, Arizona and Massachusetts each reported one diagnosis.

Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases said “We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread.”

Nine of the patients had traveled recently near Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the outbreak. At least two of those people were believed to have lived in Wuhan, while others were US residents who had visited China.

Those patients, a 57-year-old woman in California and a man in his 60s from Illinois, were believed to have contracted the virus from spouses who had returned from Wuhan.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) outlined enhanced screening plans for family members of US citizens and Green Card holders returning from China, who may face a 14-day quarantine if they had been in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also says it is currently monitoring at least 82 people for potential infection with the virus.

China announced Tuesday that there were 3,235 new confirmed infections by the end of Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 20,438.

The country’s National Health Commission said the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 425 as of the end of Monday, up by 64 from the previous day.

Source: Presstv