Doctor who treated first US coronavirus patient says COVID-19 has been ‘circulating unchecked’ for weeks

President Donald Trump holds news conference on the coronavirus outbreak at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2020.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips recalled the day the first U.S. patient infected with COVID-19, a 35-year-old man from Snohomish County in Washington State, had taken a “turn for the worse.”
“He was day nine in his course and he actually started going downhill, started getting worse,” said Compton-Phillips, the chief clinical officer of Providence St. Joseph Health, the health system that treated the first confirmed U.S. case of the new coronavirus.
At first, the patient only had common cold-like symptoms, Compton-Phillips said. But very quickly he began to have shortness of breath and a cough, she said. His x-ray also showed viral pneumonia. He needed supplemental oxygen and had to be put on an experimental antiviral treatment.
The patient has recovered …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]