SAN ANTONIO – As city officials work to prevent any exposure of coronavirus in the San Antonio area, they released a detailed timeline of activities of an infected evacuee who was returned to isolation after spending 12 hours in the community.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the patient met the criteria for release on Saturday after testing negative for the virus twice in tests taken 24 hours apart. But a separate lab test that was pending when the patient was released came back “weakly” positive, officials said.
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Before she was re-isolated, the woman visited North Star Mall for about two hours and checked into a hotel near the San Antonio International Airport.
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The woman was among the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in Texas and the only infected evacuee in the first cohort of about 100 evacuees flown into JBSA-Lackland in early February from Wuhan, China, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.
Nirenberg issued a public health emergency Monday afternoon in an effort to keep quarantined individuals from entering San Antonio.
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City officials released a timeline of the patient’s activities while she was out in the community:
- 2:53 p.m. (Saturday) – Patient was dropped off at the Holiday Inn Express Airport at 91 NE Loop 410 by a third-party driver. The patient entered the room at 3:11 p.m.
- 5:13 p.m. – Patient returned to the hotel lobby and requested a shuttle. The patient was picked up at 5:23 p.m. by a hotel shuttle driver.
- 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – Patient visited North Star Mall, including Dillard’s, Talbot’s and Swarovski. Patient went to the food court, ordered food from a Chinese restaurant and ate alone in the food court area. Patient was not in close contact with anyone at the mall.
- 7:30 p.m. – Patient returned to hotel on the hotel shuttle.
- 7:35 p.m. – Patient reentered room.
- 2:00 a.m. (Sunday) – Patient was transported back to Texas Center for Infectious Disease (TCID) in a specialized ambulance. All medical professionals on board wore personal protective equipment. Metro Health is in the process of contacting individuals who may have come in contact with the patient to notify them of the potential risk of exposure. All individuals who came in contact with patient at the hotel and mall are considered to be of low risk of exposure, and only two of the 18 people who came in contact with the patient at the TCID hospital are considered medium risk.
“The investigation has revealed generally encouraging news considering the circumstances,” Nirenberg said.