The first US patient to contract the deadly coronavirus is being treated by a robot doctor in a tiny secured room to reduce the risk of the disease spreading, according to a report.
Decked out with a stethoscope, camera and microphone, the cutting-edge automaton has been tending to the 30-something man in a 20-by-20-foot “isopod” at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash., a hospital chief told The Guardian.
The unnamed patient — who recently returned from a trip to central China — was picked up at his home, taken to the hospital by ambulance and placed in the closed isolation unit Monday, according to Dr. George Diaz, chief of infectious diseases.
Once the room was secured, Diaz said he sat outside the window to operate the futuristic physician in order to avoid coming in contact with the disease.
The patient, who is in “satisfactory condition,” was allowed to move around inside the pod once it was secured, Diaz said.
It’s the first time the medical center has admitted someone into its special pathogens unit, which was built in 2015 as a response to the Ebola virus.
“The wheels were greased enough that it wasn’t hard to get the process rolling to activate all the procedures that we had put in place,” Diaz said. “Every few weeks [we’re] doing drills and training like you would for an earthquake or fire drill or something like that, and so you’re always trying to maintain a state of readiness.
The virus, which is believed to have originated in Wuhan, in Hubei province, has killed at least 17 people in China and infected hundreds more.
The World Health Organization has been considering declaring a public health emergency but CDC officials say the risk of contracting the disease in the US is low.