Cleveland Clinic: New cases of COVID-19 found on first day of in-house testing

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - The Cleveland Clinic said it has a “handful of confirmed cases throughout our system” after its first day of in-house testing.

In a statement, the renowned hospital said it cannot confirm the exact number of cases but on CNBC, Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic said that number is five. His statement on this begins around the 7 minute mark below.

“As we continue to test we will likely see these numbers increase,” a statement from the clinic continued. “Patients are isolated at home and all precautions are being followed for those who are inpatient. To maintain the privacy of the individuals involved we are not disclosing health information. The Ohio Department of Health will have exact count of new cases.”

The ODH updates its website at 2 p.m. every day with new coronavirus numbers.

The number of confirmed cases on the ODH website still shows there are five confirmed cases with 52 people who were being tested. The additional ones reported by the Clinic have not yet been recorded.

The test for COVID-19 is the same test being used worldwide according to Mihaljevic.

The test Cleveland Clinic is using gives the patients a result quicker, because it is being done in-house. It takes the Clinic between 8 to 12 hours to get results. Results from the CDC take between five and seven days.

Mihaljevic told CNBC they can do 500 tests a day, but hope to increase that number to 1,000 a day.

“There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that the exposure and spread of virus is much greater than initially expected,” Mihaljevic said during the interview.

“We are still in the flu season,” Mihaljevic said. “So the first step is to test for flu.”

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