The Korean health authorities said the local case of pneumonia-like illness was not related to a new strain of the coronavirus that recently terrorized Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KDCD) said its pan-coronavirus test on the patient turned negative.

The KDCD said it had shared the test result with the patient’s attending physician and experts in the infectious disease and diagnostic medicine departments. The authorities discharged the patient whose health state improved and discontinued the monitoring of people who had contact with the patient.

After Wuhan City issued an emergency notification on Dec. 31, 2019, the KDCD quickly set up a pan-coronavirus test for the detection of all known coronaviruses and was able to confirm that the patient’s symptoms were not linked to the China outbreaks.

Although the Wuhan Municipal Health Committee announced on Saturday that the new virus outbreak killed one person, the Korean authorities decided to maintain the current response level considering that no infection occurred among healthcare workers, the human-to-human transmission was not clear. There was no further occurrence after Jan. 3.

However, the KCDC said it would continue to collect information on the clinical features and epidemiologic features of the new coronavirus infection and update related guidelines through close cooperation with experts in the private sector.

Copyright © KBR Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution prohibited