A Chicago contracting and development company says it is working with health officials after one of its employees — a Chicago man who contracted the coronavirus from his wife — recently traveled to Cleveland.
PIRHL, LLC said Friday it has been in contact with the Chicago, Cook County, Illinois and Ohio health departments after learning Thursday that an employee in their Chicago office visited the company’s Cleveland office on Jan. 14.
“According to the Ohio Department of Health, this individual was not symptomatic and is not considered a risk to anyone he came in contact with during his time in Cleveland,” PIRHL said in a statement.
A source told the Chicago Sun-Times the employee in question is the same man who contracted the illness from his wife — the first person-to-person transmission in the United States.
The man’s visit to Cleveland came a day after his wife returned from central China, the epicenter of the outbreak, and well before either began to exhibit any symptoms, the source said.
The local woman, who is in her 60s, returned from central China on Jan. 13; last week, she went to a hospital with symptoms and was diagnosed with the viral illness. She and her husband, also in his 60s, are now both hospitalized, officials said Thursday. His condition has been stabilized; she is “doing well,” officials said.
NBC Chicago reported the man’s infant grandson, who recently developed a fever, is being tested for the coronavirus.
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said Thursday there are “21 individuals [in Illinois] who are considered persons under investigation.”
The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. It is a member of the coronavirus family, a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past. The new virus has sickened thousands, mostly in China, which reported Friday night that 259 people have died; there have been 11,791 confirmed cases in all. The World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency.
