Methodist Healthcare treating San Antonio coronavirus patient

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Methodist Healthcare announced in a statement Thursday that it is caring for the first coronavirus patient to be diagnosed in Texas.

The patient was an evacuee from China and had been in quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and was found to have a fever.

That patient was taken to Methodist Hospital Texsan in Balcones Heights in a San Antonio Fire Department ambulance dedicated to infectious diseases like the coronavirus.

“With the expert guidance of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we activated additional protocols prior to the patient’s arrival to ensure the safety of all hospital staff, patients and visitors,” Methodist Healthcare CEO Dr. Paul Hancock said in a statement. “The individual was privately escorted through a secluded entrance to avoid common areas and has been isolated at all times.”

The patient is said to be in stable condition with mild symptoms.

The San Antonio case is the 15th confirmed case of the coronavirus in the United States and the first in Texas.  There are 90 other evacuees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland who are roughly halfway through the quarantine period.