WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - California health officials said on Sunday (Feb 2) that they had confirmed 11 cases of the new, fast-spreading coronavirus in the United States, with one in Santa Clara county and two more in San Benito county.
In Santa Clara county, a woman and the family she is staying with are being quarantined and she is now in isolation at their home, county health officials told a news conference.
The woman was not sick enough to require hospitalisation, it added.
The woman, who recently travelled to the epicentre of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, is the second case in Santa Clara reported, health officials said. They said the case is not related to the first case in Santa Clara.
The other two cases involve a married couple in San Benito county, the San Benito County Public Health Services announced in a release late Sunday.
The husband recently travelled to Wuhan and apparently transmitted the disease to his wife, San Benito County Public Health Services said.
Neither patient is hospitalised, officials said.
San Benito county health officials were not immediately available to Reuters for comment.
Santa Clara is located about 64km south-east of San Francisco while San Benito is about 128km west of Fresno.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed county health officials of the case on Sunday morning, said Ms Sara Cody, health officer of the Public Health Department of the County of Santa Clara.
The flu-like coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in a market that traded illegally in wildlife in Hubei's provincial capital, Wuhan, has so far resulted in 350 deaths in China.
Confirmed cases of the virus have been reported in 27 other nations, according to the CDC.
American health officials have said risks to the US remain low.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said the US has taken decisive action to protect Americans from the threat of the coronavirus while offering help to China.
Mr Trump appeared to downplay concerns about the flu-like virus that has killed more than 300 people in China and spread to more than two dozen countries, telling Fox television in an interview: "We're gonna see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes."
Concerns about the virus spurred the US to declare a public health emergency and bar entry to foreign nationals who have recently visited China.
Under new restrictions that go into effect at 5pm ET (2200 GMT) on Sunday, US citizens who have travelled in China within 14 days will be directed to one of seven airports designated for screening.
"We can't have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem - the coronavirus," Mr Trump told Fox during a short interview broadcast on Sunday.
He said US officials had offered China "tremendous help" in dealing with the epidemic.
Mr Trump's national security adviser, Mr Robert O'Brien, in a separate interview, said China has been more open about the coronavirus than it had been in previous crises, but had not yet accepted US offers of assistance.
"So far, the Chinese have been more transparent certainly than in past crises and we appreciate that," Mr O'Brien said in an interview with CBS' Face The Nation.
He said Beijing has still not responded to US offers of help from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other health professionals.
