13 Montco Patients Had Contact With CHOP Doctor With Coronavirus

KING OF PRUSSIA, PA — A total of 13 children from Montgomery County had direct contact with a cardiologist with coronavirus at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's King of Prussia outpatient facility, officials said. There are an undisclosed number of further contacts by patients who reside outside of the county.

The cardiologist, an Upper Merion resident, is now in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Officials did not release his age.

He is among Montgomery County's seven coronavirus cases. As of Monday afternoon, there were 10 cases total in Pennsylvania.

>>Pennsylvania Coronavirus Case Count Up To 10

CHOP has not responded to a request for the number of patients from outside of the county who may have had contact.

The cardiologist contracted coronavirus after traveling internationally to a country where the virus is located. When asked why, as a medical professional, the man did not self-quarantine, chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners Val Arkoosh said that she "did not have any details on the personal circumstances of the affected individual."

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CHOP is working to notify all possible contacts and their families.

"That would include patients, and any faculty or staff that they have concerns about," Arkoosh said during a Monday press conference.

>>5th Montco Coronavirus Case, Person Critical: Officials

Those individuals and their families have been told to self-isolate at home, and their conditions are being monitored on a daily basis by county health officials. None of them have yet shown any symptoms.

The county uses a forensic process called "contact tracing," which involves interviews with each individual who had contact with the cardiologist. From there, officials work to determine everywhere the individual has been since they made contact, and proceed to notify other individuals, relatives, businesses, or schools that might have connections.

Five schools in Montgomery County, Fort Washington's Germantown Academy, the Norristown Area School District, the Upper Merion School District, and the Cheltenham School District, have already closed down for the all or part of this week due to possible connections to local coronavirus cases.

The King of Prussia case Monday involved the first time EMS units responded to coronavirus within the county. Officials praised the professionalism of first responders handling the situation.

"Based on our preliminary investigation, all the first responders wore all the appropriate protective equipment," Dr. Wong said. "No need for first responders to be isolated, they were safe and well protected."

More than 110,000 coronavirus cases and 3,800 deaths have been confirmed worldwide.