RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — At least eight people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Virginia, according to announcements Tuesday from state health officials.
The latest cases confirmed by the state Department of Health were a resident of Loudoun County in northern Virginia and two residents of Virginia Beach, for the first diagnoses in the Hampton Roads region.
The Loudoun County individual is a person in their 40s who is believed to have come in contact with a person infected with COVID-19 __ the illness caused by the virus __ while attending Christ Church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., according to the local health department.
The rector of that church, the Rev. Timothy Cole, announced Sunday that he was the District’s first confirmed case. Hundreds of people who attended services there have been asked to self-quarantine.
The Loudoun County patient is currently doing well and is isolated at home, the department said in a news release.
In Virginia Beach, the local health department announced that two residents had tested positive.
The patients, a male in his 60s and female in her 50s, had traveled on a Nile River cruise that recently reported COVID-19 cases, according to the Virginia Beach Health Department. They returned to U.S. on Thursday and were tested at a Virginia Beach hospital Sunday.
Positive tests by state health departments are sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
Separately Tuesday, the Navy announced that a civilian employee at the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Falls Church had tested positive. The individual is currently at a hospital in northern Virginia, according to the statement, which said personnel the individual immediately identified having close contact with have been notified and are in self-isolation.
That person has already been counted among the eight reported by the state health department, said Cmdr. Denver Applehans, a bureau spokesman.
The other cases in Virginia are: a Fairfax husband and wife who recently returned from a Nile River cruise; a resident of Spotsylvania County in their 50s; an Arlington County resident in their 60s ; and a U.S. Marine being treated at Fort Belvoir, just outside of the nation’s capital.
