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In San Diego, Patient Tests Negative, Then Positive for Coronavirus Labeling Error to Blame for Hospital’s Release of Coronavirus Patient
(about 3 hours later)
A person who was among hundreds evacuated to the United States from China was released from a San Diego hospital after testing negative for coronavirus, but was returned to the hospital about a day later after further tests indicated that the person actually had the virus, officials say. A person sick with coronavirus was released from a San Diego hospital this week after a labeling error led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to incorrectly indicate that the person did not have the virus, federal authorities said on Tuesday.
The patient, who was part of a group flown from Wuhan, the center of the deadly outbreak, had been taken to the hospital, University of California San Diego Health, soon after arriving in the United States. After being cleared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an initial test, hospital officials said, the person was taken on Sunday to a nearby military base, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where most of the group has been held as part of a federally-ordered 14-day quarantine period. The patient, who was among hundreds recently evacuated to the United States from China and under quarantine at a military base, was wrongly discharged from the hospital and sent back to the military base because of the error, a statement from the C.D.C. indicated.
The patient was among three quarantined evacuees at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego whose samples were mislabeled and went untested, Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said in a statement. It was uncertain how the labeling error was made and which agency was responsible, and C.D.C. officials did not immediately answer questions about who had mislabeled the specimens or how.
The three patients were among about 850 people, most of them Americans, who have been evacuated to the United States from Wuhan, the epicenter of the crisis. They were experiencing symptoms of illness and were taken to the hospital, University of California San Diego Health, not long after they arrived in the United States last week. After tests were believed to be completed, the three — believed to be clear of the virus — were being returned to the base to complete a 14-day quarantine period with scores of others.
But as the three people, wearing masks, were being driven in a van back to the military base from the hospital on Sunday, the error was discovered. Their specimens, officials realized, had never been analyzed, said Thomas Skinner, a C.D.C. spokesman who is on the base.
Updated Feb.11, 2020Updated Feb.11, 2020
But on Monday, the C.D.C. advised local health officials in San Diego County that additional testing had showed the patient had the virus. Officials did not identify the patient. Three others who had been hospitalized pending test results had tested negative initially, and again in later tests, and also were sent to join the group in quarantine on the base. Rather than returning the three to the hospital, health officials decided to proceed on to the base, urging the three people to isolate themselves in their rooms until their actual results came back, Mr. Skinner said.
Another person under quarantine was also being tested at the hospital on Monday, officials said. Both patients have minimal symptoms, the hospital said. On Monday morning, the tests came back. One of the three people — unidentified by the authorities — was positive for the virus, and was rushed back to the hospital, Mr. Skinner said. The person was being treated there, and officials on Tuesday said that the person was doing well and had minimal symptoms.
Since Jan. 29, the United States has evacuated about 850 people, most of them Americans, on five charter flights out of Wuhan. They are being quarantined on five military bases in Nebraska, Texas and California. Mr. Skinner said the infected person had been on the military base, isolated in a room, for about 16 to 18 hours. Health officials were working to determine who the patient had interacted with during that period, he said.
As word of the illness — and the testing error — became known among others in quarantine on the base, some said they were concerned. At least one man, who declined to be identified by name, said he had questions about whether enough people were being tested, whether common areas were being disinfected, and whether health officials were being transparent enough with those under quarantine.
Ms. Nordlund said that C.D.C. laboratory staff members would now take part in field teams working to prevent such errors.
Another person under quarantine was also being tested at the San Diego hospital on Monday, officials said.
Since Jan. 29, the United States has evacuated about 850 people, most of them Americans, on five charter flights out of Wuhan. They are being quarantined on five military bases in Nebraska, Texas and California. Local health officials in Riverside County said on Tuesday that 195 people from the first government evacuation flight to leave Wuhan, on Jan. 29, were to be released from quarantine at March Air Reserve Base. All were found free of the virus during two weeks in quarantine on the California base.
Miriam Jordan and Amy Qin contributed reporting.