CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Clinic has a “handful” of confirmed coronavirus cases throughout its system, a Clinic spokesperson said.

This comes one day after the Clinic began in-house testing for the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. The Clinic one of the first hospitals in the country testing in-house for the virus, officials said.

“As we continue to test we will likely see these numbers increase. 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,” said Andrea Pacetti, a Clinic spokesperson, told The Plain Dealer.

The health system can test up to 500 patients per day, Clinic President and CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic said during a press conference Thursday. The system plans to increase that capacity to 1,000 next week, MIhaljevic said during a CNBC interview today.

The Clinic also is waiving copays on the testing for both uninsured and insured patients, officials said.

And, during a congressional hearing Thursday, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter pressured the CDC director to agree that the agency would cover the cost of coronavirus testing.

The test will take eight to 10 hours to get results, the Clinic said. The system is screening patients to determine who to test, and first will test for other diseases such as the flu. Previously, the Clinic was working with LabCorp for testing.

The Clinic also is developing a drive-thru testing center with other area hospitals, Clinic officials said. Both MetroHealth and University Hospitals officials also shared plans for drive-thru testing.

The Ohio Department of Health began testing for COVID-19 on Saturday and continues to ramp up testing as more test kits arrive. Private companies, including LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics, also are offering tests. Before, testing was only completed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Five cases have been confirmed by ODH, which only updates its public figures at 2 p.m. daily. All five of those are patients in their 50s — four men and one woman. Three patients in Cuyahoga County are in home-quarantine, and the Stark County man is hospitalized. The fifth patient is a 55-year-old man who was treated at Mercy Health St. Joseph Warren Hospital in Trumbull County; his status is unknown.

However, because of community-level spread, it is likely the number of Ohioans with the virus is much higher, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday during a press conference.

“We are told by medical experts that whatever the number is today, it will double in six days,” DeWine said. “We know that these confirmed numbers are only a small fraction of individuals affected already in the state of Ohio."

He said the virus is “in all likelihood, throughout the state of Ohio.”

Ohio Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton estimated that as many as 1% of Ohioans, or more than 100,000, could have the virus.

Because tests in the U.S. were “slow in coming,” there was a delay in being able to identify people with coronavirus, said Dr. Robert Salata, program director of the University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health.

“It really has hampered our ability to make these diagnoses,” Salata said.

On Feb. 29, the Federal Drug Administration issued a new policy that allowed laboratories to develop and use new tests for coronavirus. Testing for coronavirus involves an amplification method called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, in which samples from individuals are compared against the genetic code of the virus, Salata said.

DeWine on Monday declared a state of emergency, and, on Wednesday, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish did the same. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson on Wednesday also issued a proclamation of civil emergency. And the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the coronavirus a pandemic, meaning the virus is spreading quickly in many geographic areas around the world.

The community-level spread of the coronavirus also prompted DeWine to roll out a series of orders this week promoting social distancing, including banning large gatherings and shutting down K-12 schools temporarily.

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness with symptoms similar to those of the flu — fever, cough and shortness of breath — that has sickened thousands and killed 4,600 globally, according to WHO. There is not yet a vaccine for COVID-19, nor are there any medications approved to treat it, according to the CDC.

Latest COVID-19 statistics, as of 11 a.m. Friday:

Countries, territories and areas with confirmed cases: 118

U.S. states reporting cases: 42 and Washington, D.C.

Total cases in U.S.: 1,215

Total deaths in U.S.: 36

Worldwide information is from the WHO, and U.S. numbers are from the CDC.

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