Two people from New Hampshire who recently traveled to Wuhan, China and were being monitored by health officials do not have the deadly new coronavirus, officials said Thursday.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said the two individuals — who had sought treatment after developing respiratory symptoms — had tested negative for the virus and fully recovered.
"Both of the individuals are recovering or are fully recovered and are doing well, I am happy to say," New Hampshire Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan said Thursday.
One of the people was earlier identified as a student from White Mountain School in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, according to Littleton Regional Healthcare.
"We are most appreciative of our student for taking precautionary and immediate steps upon recognizing and reporting cold-like symptoms, steps this student and the student's family took out of concern for our students and the broader community," the school said in a statement.
“We have not yet identified any individuals infected with this novel coronavirus in New Hampshire, but we continue to work closely with healthcare providers and the CDC to protect the health of our communities,” said Chan.
More on the Coronavirus
The new strain of the coronavirus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia, though those symptoms are also characteristic of the common flu. The new bug is a member of the coronavirus family that's a close cousin to the deadly SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past.
So far, five people in the United States have been infected with the new virus, health officials said.
All of the patients infected with the virus had traveled to Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
