4 new Houston-area coronavirus cases bring local total to 8

HOUSTON (AP) — The number of Houston-area residents testing positive for the new coronavirus has reached eight with the positive tests announced Friday of two suburban Houston women in their 60s.

The results on the two women from Fort Bend County, located just southwest of Houston, came after Houston reported its first city residents testing positive for the virus — a man and a woman, each also in their 60s.

Houston officials said their cases were likely exposed while traveling in Egypt, as was the case with the two Fort Bend County women. The four are linked to four other Houston-area residents who tested positive after the taking same February trip.

The Fort Bend County women are in self-quarantine at home, one with symptoms resolved and the other with mild symptoms, county health officials said. The Houston woman was in stable condition at a hospital, while the man is experiencing mild symptoms of COVID-19 and was in self-quarantine at home.

Health officials in Harris County, where Houston is located, on Thursday announced that two men and a woman who live in the county and were also on the Egypt trip tested positive. They are also in their 60s and remain hospitalized in stable condition.

On Wednesday, health officials announced that a 70-year-old man in Fort Bend County had a received a “presumptive positive” test for the new virus. Officials said the man, who also was on the Egypt trip, was in stable condition. The man was the first Texan to have a positive test result outside of persons repatriated from abroad.

“There remains no evidence of community spread, no need to alter our normal activity in Houston,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner.

___

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.