Gatherings cut to 10; two WU doctors test positive

Mayor Lyda Krewson reported at a press conference Wednesday the city’s second confirmed coronavirus case.

Krewson then announced that beginning Friday the city would ban social gatherings of more than 10 people to prevent the spread of the virus.

The measure follows recommendations by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as city Director of Health Fredrick Echols and local experts at BJC Health, Mercy Hospital South and SSM Health.

The St. Louis case involves a Washington University physician.

Washington University announced Wednesday that four people connected with the university had tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Chancellor Andrew Martin issued a statement saying that two of the four were WU physicians at the university’s medical school. They are not currently working with patients and are quarantined, he said.

“We’re working as diligently and quickly as possible with public health officials who are identifying and communicating with anyone who may have had contact with the physicians,” Martin continued.

One of the physicians lives in the city St. Louis and the other in St. Louis County, a university spokeswoman said in a written statement.

The two other cases are undergraduate students who had just left a study-abroad program in Denmark. The two students did not return to the university but are instead being quarantined out of state and receiving care there, Martin explained.

Also on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., became the first known member of Congress to test positive for the new coronavirus. Diaz-Balart entered self-quarantine in Washington last Friday and learned Wednesday that he had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.