DC confirms first presumptive case of coronavirus 

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Saturday that the city has its first presumptive case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). 

Bowser announced on Twitter that local health officials received their first positive test of the virus on Saturday. Cases are considered “presumptive” until they are confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Late this afternoon, testing at the Public Health Lab at the DC Department of Forensic Sciences yielded its first presumptive positive coronavirus (COVID-19) case. Join me live at 7:30 p.m. for a briefing at the John A. Wilson Building.

— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) March 7, 2020

At a Saturday evening press conference, Bowser said the patient is a male, D.C. resident in his 50s who began showing symptoms in late February and was admitted to a local hospital on March 5. 

The man did not have a history of travel or contact with a confirmed case as of Saturday, though health officials are still tracing the case’s lineage. The news comes the same day an attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) tested positive for the virus in a health facility in New Jersey. 

Bowser said the District does not plan to declare a state of emergency as of Saturday like several other states. When asked, Bowser said the city does not have any plans to cancel the Cherry Blossom Festival either, despite other conferences and events around the country doing so. 

“I will evaluate that,” Boswer said. 

Bowser also noted that a person that was confirmed with the virus in Maryland has a history of travel to the District. 

The mayor added that another patient was visiting D.C. and developed symptoms of COVID-19 while there, then went to a hospital in Maryland for testing. She said he is still hospitalized in the state.