Officials in Texas on Thursday confirmed two new cases of the coronavirus in Harris County, the Texas Tribune reported.
The new confirmed cases come one day after a man tested positive for the virus in Fort Bend County. However, the cases are not related.
According to a news release, the two newest cases in the Houston metropolitan area — a man and a woman from northwest Harris County — are travel-related, and officials said there is no evidence of community spread of the virus in Texas.
The first 11 cases in Texas were among people who caught COVID-19 overseas and then were brought to the San Antonio Lackland Air Force Base for quarantine.
“Since January, we have been at an elevated level of readiness to prepare for and respond to a positive case here in Harris County,” Harris County Public Health Executive Director Umair Shah said in a statement. “We will continue to take action by identifying potential contacts and monitoring them closely.”
On Wednesday, a man in his 70s who recently traveled abroad and lives in the Houston area became the state’s first coronavirus case identified outside of a Texas quarantine site. He has been hospitalized and is in stable condition.
Meanwhile, in the state of Washington, the number of coronavirus cases rose to 70 Thursday, up from 39 on Wednesday, with another fatal case in King County bringing the death toll in the state to 11.
Of the 70 cases, 51 are in King County, 18 in Snohomish County and one in Grant County.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday denied that he told Fox News' Sean Hannity that people who are feeling sick should continue to go to work amid the coronavirus outbreak.
"I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work. This is just more Fake News and disinformation put out by the Democrats, in particular MSDNC. Comcast covers the CoronaVirus situation horribly, only looking to do harm to the incredible & successful effort being made!" tweeted Trump.
“With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!” he wrote in a later tweet.
“Gallup just gave us the highest rating ever for the way we are handling the CoronaVirus situation. The April 2009-10 Swine Flu, where nearly 13,000 people died in the U.S., was poorly handled. Ask MSDNC & lightweight Washington failure Ronald Klain, who the President was then?” he wrote in a third tweet.