US confirms 13th virus case as Trump seeks CDC cut

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday the 13th case of coronavirus in the U.S. as President Donald Trump a day earlier sought a massive cut to the agency's budget.

The newest case is a patient who was placed under federal quarantine after returning from Wuhan, China. The U.S. is requiring all passengers returning from Wuhan submit to mandatory federal quarantine for 14 days -- the period thought to be the number the virus incubates in a human host.

The patient, whose identity was not publicly disclosed, had "recently returned" from Wuhan," the national public health institute said in a statement.

"CDC is conducting a thorough contact investigation of the person who has tested positive to determine contacts and to assess if those contacts had high risk exposures," it added.

The center's new diagnosis comes amid a global push to rein in the disease as it eclipsed 1,000 deaths in China alone. Authorities there confirmed in the last 24 hours 42,638 cases of the disease have been detected, 108 people died and more than 7,333 new cases.

Most of the deaths linked to coronavirus have been reported in mainland China after it erupted in the central city of Wuhan in December.

The CDC has been leading the U.S.'s medical response to the disease as part of a task force Trump established to combat the spread of coronavirus within the country.

But as part of his budget proposal, Trump sought a 9% cut to the agency's overall budget amounting to $678 million, but increased its funding for fighting infectious diseases.

The agency has a sweeping mandate that broadly encompasses protection of public health, which is far more encompassing that solely combatting communicable diseases. Just last year the institute played a leading role in determining the cause of a mysterious lung illness that resulted from vaping, the popular alternative to smoking.

It also conducts work on non-infections diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

Trump's budget is merely a statement of his administration's priorities and is certain to be far from the final version approved by Congress.