Medical School faculty member tests positive for coronavirus

March 6, 2020, 6:43 p.m.

A faculty member in Stanford School of Medicine has tested positive for COVID-19, Dean Lloyd Minor announced in an email Friday evening, marking the first publicly confirmed coronavirus case in a Stanford affiliate.

The individual has not been in the workplace since experiencing symptoms, according to the email.

“Immediately after hearing this news, we followed CDC’s recommended guidelines, which include notifying people that they might have been exposed and requesting that they self-isolate,” reads the email, which was also signed by Stanford Health Care President and CEO David Entwistle, as well as Stanford Children’s Health President Paul King. 

It is unclear how many people were instructed to self-isolate. The email adds that the clinic where the faculty member works was closed Friday for cleaning and is expected to reopen on Monday. 

School of Medicine spokesperson Michelle Brandt wrote in an email to The Daily that the “available information” on the case is included in Minor’s email.

The University announced yesterday that Stanford Medicine was “caring for a few patients who have tested positive for COVID-19.” Stanford Health Care spokesperson Julie Greicius declined to confirm whether those patients were affiliated with the University, citing patient privacy laws. 
While the School of Medicine case has not been added to Stanford’s health alerts website, the site no longer states that there are no cases of coronavirus at any Stanford location, as it did early on Thursday.

Contact Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Julia Ingram ’21 was The Daily's Volume 256 editor-in-chief. She is a New York City native majoring in English literature and working toward a career in news reporting. Contact her at jingram ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.

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