SPOKANE, Wash. — Two coronavirus patients receiving treatment at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center's Special Pathogens Unit were released last week. With their departure from the hospital, all four of the initial cases that came to Spokane have now recovered.
Kelli Hawkins, a spokesperson for the Spokane Regional Health District, said the patient's two tests for the virus came back negative.
Four coronavirus patients were brought to Sacred Heart on Feb. 19 from Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. The patients were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
Sacred Heart was chosen because it is home to one of 10 hospitals in the country with the capability to deal with pathogens, such as coronavirus (now known as COVID-19) and Ebola.
Sacred Heart's unit was build with funding provided by the U.S. government during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak.
The other hospitals are located in Boston; New York City; Baltimore; Atlanta; Minneapolis; Galveston, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver; and Los Angeles.
Thirty-one people have died and at least 457 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Washington state.
Washington has the most confirmed cases in the United States.