LOCAL health officials have heightened surveillance for a new coronavirus, a deadly respiratory infection, that has spread from China to the United States. The virus has sickened more than 300 people in Asia and killed six, according to international reports. The first US case was announced yesterday. Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said a diagnostic test for the coronavirus is available locally. He also said there had been some adjustments, such as increasing surveillance for virus symptoms and flagging individuals who travelled from China to do secondary inspections to determine if these person are showing signs of the coronavirus. The minister added: “At this point, it’s just information sharing about how people present, what symptoms they have, how do you evaluate the patients, what steps should we take, etc. Bear in mind we have done training for Ebola, we’ve done training for Influenza, measles. “So, we live in a different world that we once used to live in….so on any given day patients can present with a number of different contagious diseases.”

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