SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio health officials confirm they are investigating a third travel-related case of COVID-19.
The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District confirmed the case investigation Sunday afternoon.
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The individual recently traveled to Spain, health officials said. This brings the total number of travel-related COVID-19 cases in San Antonio to three.
“As testing capacity has increased, we are getting clearer and more rapid assessment of any potential occurrence of travel-related infections. This will continue to increase the effectiveness of our efforts to get our community through this pandemic safely,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a press release.
Health officials are working to trace and notify others who the COVID-19 patient may have been in contact with.
The patient is currently isolated from the public, according to Metro Health.
Officials said this is not a community-spread case.
The second travel-related case was confirmed Saturday by health officials. The patient is being treated at Methodist Hospital.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff declared a public health emergency in Bexar County Friday after San Antonio city officials announced San Antonio’s first travel-related case of COVID-19. That patient recently traveled out of state and is in self-quarantine with family, officials said.
COVID-19 patients are urged to seek medical care from their primary care physicians or urgent care providers if they do not have a primary care physician, health officials say.
Metro Health says patients should not contact them directly to request testing; instead, a health care provider must order the COVID-19 test.
Patients should also not go to emergency rooms for COVID-19 testing, health officials say.
Below is the testing criteria for COVID-19, according to Metro Health:
- 1. Patient shows fever or signs/symptoms of lower respiratory illness such as cough or shortness of breath and the patient has had close contact with a laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 case within 14 days of symptom onset
- 2. Patient shows fever and signs/symptoms of a lower respiratory illness and significant respiratory illness and patient is a health care worker and first responder, who has had close contact with a strongly suspected COVID-19 patient within 14 days of symptom onset
- 3. Patient shows fever and signs/symptoms of a lower respiratory illness and other significant respiratory illness has been excluded (such as flu); and patient has risk factors that puts the individual at high risk or poor outcomes or is a health care worker or first responder
- 4. Patient shows severe acute respiratory illness such as pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, which requires hospitalization and has a negative flu diagnosis and no source of COVID-19 exposure has been identified or is a health care worker or first responder
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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