SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A St. George man who was infected in a coronavirus outbreak on a cruise ship in Japan has been transferred from California to a high-level isolation unit at a Utah hospital after he requested to be closer to home, officials said.
Intermountain Medical Center officials announced Friday that the hospital would be treating Mark Jorgenson after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the hospital’s assistance.
Joregenson, 55, and his wife were passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship that quarantined hundreds of people earlier this month.
Jorgenson was transferred from California to Utah on a chartered flight.
Dr. Tood Vento, an Intermountain infectious disease physician, said Jorgenson is showing no symptoms of the virus whose outbreak began in China and has spread to tens of thousands of people around the world.
“We’ve spoken to him earlier this evening prior to his transfer, and he actually shared that it was OK to say that he felt perfectly normal,” Vento said Friday.
Hospital and state health officials said there is no risk to other patients, hospital staff or the general public.
Jorgenson and his wife, Jerri, were among the passengers confined to Diamond Princess for about 10 days in Yokohama, Japan.
Jerri Jorgenson was previously confirmed to have the coronavirus, and she is being treated in Japan.
Mark Jorgenson tested negative for the virus twice before he tested positive while in quarantine at Travis Air Force Base, Vento said.
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