Dr. George Diaz was at home in Edmonds, Wash., on Jan. 20 at 8:30 p.m., when his phone rang with news that he was both anticipating and dreading.
On the line was his hospital’s infection-prevention manager, who had just received a call from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency wanted Providence Regional Medical Center to admit a patient who was infected with the novel coronavirus, which at that point had been reported only in China (where the first reported cases had emerged in December), Thailand, Japan and South Korea. The patient was the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S.
Image: https://time.com
