The Department of Veterans Affairs has identified a patient in Nevada who tested presumptively positive for coronavirus through a public health laboratory, according to a new report. If confirmed, the case would raise the tally of coronavirus patients identified through the VA system up to two.

Sources familiar with the most recent case told the Nevada Independent that the VA Southern Nevada Healthcare System identified the patient, who then completed a test for the virus administered through the Southern Nevada Health District.

Test results from the public health laboratory found the patient tested presumptively positive for COVID-19, but confirmation is pending from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to verify results by examining a sample, per the Nevada Independent.

It’s unclear how or where the patient is being treated; however, a press conference is expected later Thursday on the matter. According to a CDC statement, presumptive positive tests awaiting CDC confirmation are still treated as a positive result.

The patient could mark the second the VA has identified with the virus. VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said Wednesday that a veteran in Northern California also tested positive for the virus.

The veteran is being treated at the VA Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, by “staff who are specially trained on the latest Centers for Disease Control treatment guidelines and utilizing personal protective equipment and infection control techniques,” according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Wilkie and the executive director of the Veterans Health Administration, Dr. Richard Stone, told lawmakers the VA has been poised to address public health episodes like the coronavirus outbreak since January.

“We train for this, not only for national disasters, we train for epidemics, moving our supply chain in preparation before this became a national issue,” Wilkie told lawmakers on the House Appropriations Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on Wednesday. “We have been ... putting in place the course of action we had for Ebola and H1N1 [influenza virus] in the past.”

VA medical facilities are also ramping up precautionary measures to safeguard against COVID-19. For example, all are employing their emergency notification systems to distribute information, including phone numbers, symptoms and advice.

Likewise, the Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island started requiring all patients and visitors to undergo a temperature check and a clinical quiz on Tuesday upon entry.

VA is ordering more testing kits to detect coronavirus, while also working to create its own, according to Stone.

“That is being done all over the country now. In the near future, there will be robust testing available," Stone said.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 93,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world, including more than 12,600 cases outside of China where the virus originated.

So far, the U.S. is reporting more than 100 cases.

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