Federal health officials on Thursday confirmed the first human-to-human transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus in the U.S.
The Chicago patient is married to the woman who became the country’s second person to contract the pneumonia-like infection last week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Authorities said she had recently traveled to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus is believed to have originated.
The latest case brings the total number of U.S. patients diagnosed with the illness to six.
Globally, the number of cases topped 7,800 on Thursday, with the vast majority concentrated in Wuhan’s Hubei province and elsewhere in China. The newly discovered virus has also killed 170 people in that country and spread to more than a dozen other nations.
Among the other four U.S. patients confirmed with the illness so far, two are from California, one is from Arizona and another is from Washington state.
CDC officials briefed a group of lawmakers Thursday morning on the U.S. response to the outbreak.