OMAHA, Neb. - A 36-year-old Omaha woman who recently travelled to the United Kingdom has tested positive for COVID-19 after showing up Thursday at an Omaha emergency room, 10 days after her symptoms first appeared, doctors said Friday.

During a hastily called news conference that included Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, health officials said the woman was in respiratory distress when she was taken by another person to the Nebraska Methodist Hospital emergency room.

“She is very seriously ill,” Dr. Robert G. Penn, an infectious disease specialist with Nebraska Methodist, said.

Officials said she had travelled with her father to the U.K. on Feb. 18 and began to show mild symptoms on Feb. 24 while she was still there. She returned to Nebraska on Feb. 27.

Penn said a chest CT scan showed tell-tale lung patterns associated with the disease, and testing for the novel coronavirus taken Thursday came back positive Friday afternoon.

Officials said an epidemiology team is investigating how many people the woman had been in contact with and how many in her household might have been exposed.

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