Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas — Tamaulipas Secretary of Health Gloria Molina Gamboa announced Wednesday that hospitals will start monitoring patients for a new virus that appears to have originated in China.

Tamaulipas decided to start monitoring patients after a 57-year-old Reynosa resident — a man of Asian descent who is a professor of molecular biology at Instituto Politécnico Nacional — returned from China with what he described as a “weird” cough, according to a news release from the Tamaulipas state government.

Health officials worldwide are concerned about the virus, which appears to have originated in China.

According to the Associated Press: “The first cases appeared last month in Wuhan, a city in central China's Hubei province. Many of the first people infected had visited or worked at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, which has since been closed for an investigation. Chinese health officials say they believe the illness first spread from animals to people. They now say it can spread between people.”

The man and a companion traveled from Reynosa to Mexico City on Dec. 25, then to Tijuana and Beijing before arriving in Wuhan, according to the news release. He met with four family members during the trip.

Neither the man nor his family members appeared to have contracted the virus, according to the news release. The man returned to Reynosa on Jan. 10.

On Jan. 13, the man experienced what he described as a “weird” cough and a runny nose. As a precaution, officials asked the man to remain in isolation for five days. According to El Universal, the man is under observation at a hospital in Reynosa.

Officials said they would monitor the man, his traveling companion and the man’s coworkers for signs of the virus.

Concern about the case prompted hospitals to start monitoring patients for flu-like systems, but officials haven’t actually confirmed that anyone in Tamaulipas contracted the virus.

Correction: The 57-year-old man was directed to remain in isolation for five days; he was not asked to remain at home.