Wesleyan student tests negative for coronavirus, another Connecticut student being monitored for virus after reporting fever, cough

A Wesleyan student who was monitored over the weekend for coronavirus, tested negative for the disease, a university spokesperson said Monday.

The Wesleyan student, who had recently traveled through an airport that had a confirmed case of the virus, was monitored over the weekend for the virus after they arrived at the university health center complaining of a fever and cough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that the student tested negative for the virus.

Monday’s news came as a second person in Connecticut is being tested for coronavirus. The student, who has been to China recently, became sick with the flu after participating in Yale’s Model UN in New Haven, city officials said.

The student was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital after experiencing symptoms that included coughing and fever and tested positive of Influenza A, the common flu. As a precaution, testing for coronavirus at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been scheduled, with results expected early this week, said Gage Frank, spokesman for the mayor.

The student’s symptoms are not considered severe, and the patient had been released from the hospital, he said. Citing federal privacy laws, he didn’t say whether the student attends Yale or one of the high schools that participates in the annual, four-day conference.

The last day, Sunday, was canceled, according to the Yale Model UN website.

“Our team has been communicating on an ongoing basis to ensure we are on top of any potential issue related to the coronavirus,” Mayor Justin Elicker said. “While the two cases in Connecticut are influenza cases we are in the midst of flu season, we want to take all precautions to make absolutely sure they do not also coronavirus so as to ensure the health and safety of all residents. We will communicate any changes to events as we learn about them.”

The model United Nations allows high school students to participate in simulations during which they take on the roles of UN representatives or members of other international groups. The groups discuss and make decisions about topics like national and international security, economic development, human rights and sustainability, according to the model UN website.

The continued precautions in Connecticut come as the CDC confirmed that a third person has been diagnosed with the virus in Southern California.

A traveler from the Chinese city of Wuhan — the epicenter of the outbreak — tested positive for the virus, the Orange County Health Care Agency announced just before midnight Saturday. The patient is in isolation at a hospital and in good condition, a release from the agency said.

Max Reiss, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said the governor is closely monitoring the situation at Wesleyan.

“His administration has been in close communication with the CT Department of Public Health, which has been in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control for potential monitoring and testing,” Reiss said in a statement.

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the coronavirus is a respiratory illness that causes a fever, cough and shortness of breath. As of Saturday morning, only two cases had been confirmed in the United States, but the center was investigating 61 possible cases in 22 states.

The virus was first detected in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in Central China. The World Health Organization says a viral illness that has sickened hundreds of people is not yet a global health emergency. The decision came after Chinese authorities moved to lock down three cities on Thursday and canceled major events in the capital, Beijing, during the Lunar New Year holiday period to try to contain the new virus.

Most people infected with the virus got sick in China, but other cases have been reported in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. Seventeen people have died, prompting China to place the entire city of Wuhan in quarantine Friday.

The new virus comes from a large family of what are known as coronaviruses, some that cause nothing worse than a cold. It is not clear just how lethal this coronavirus is, or even whether it is as dangerous as ordinary flu, which kills tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone. Scientists say it is also not clear if it spreads as easily as SARS, its genetic cousin, which also originated in China and killed about 800 people in 2002 and 2003.

“It’s still too early to draw conclusions about how severe the virus is because at the beginning of any outbreak, you would focus more on the severe cases,” said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization in Geneva. “And then maybe we are missing some mild cases because people will just be a little bit sick and will not have it tested. And they will recover.”

The virus could take as little as two days to appear in victims or as long as two weeks, according to the CDC. In the U.S., the latest person confirmed to have the disease was reported to be doing well. The CDC likewise said it is expecting more Americans to be diagnosed with the virus.

Still, “CDC believes that the immediate risk to the American public continues to be low at this time, but the situation continues to evolve rapidly,” said the agency’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier.

Courant Staff Writer Zach Murdock and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

Christine Dempsey can be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.

Kathleen McWilliams can be reached at kmcwilliams@courant.com.