The CDC is separating US cases into two categories: repatriated Americans and cases confirmed in the US.
"As of this morning, we still had only 14 cases of the novel coronavirus detected in the United States," Azar said, adding, "coming into this hearing, I was informed that we have a 15th confirmed case, the epidemiology of which we are still discerning."
Japanese authorities imposed a 14-day quarantine on the cruise ship after a person tested positive for the coronavirus, but more than 650 passengers contracted COVID-19.
Last week, 328 Americans who were on the ship were flown back to the US. On the evacuation flight, 14 US citizens who'd tested positive for the virus flew in an isolation box, while others who'd been on the ship sat in a separate area. Twenty-two more people who were on that flight later got sick.
On Wednesday, six more US passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive.
Everyone who was on the cruise has been quarantined at US military bases — the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, and the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas — for two weeks.
Health experts have criticized the decision to quarantine people on the ship, suggesting that the confined spaces and poor hygiene practices on board may have helped the virus spread.
A patient tested positive for the virus while under a mandatory 14-day federal quarantine at the Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas. The quarantine started February 7 after evacuees arrived from Wuhan on a flight charted by the state department.
The CDC said the person was isolated and is receiving treatment at a nearby hospital.
Two more evacuees tested positive while under quarantine at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, California. Those two patients arrived on different planes and were housed in different quarantine facilities, according to the CDC.
One patient was taken to the University of California San Diego Medical Center for treatment. NBC San Diego reported that the other patient was taken to a San Diego County hospital.
They were all quarantined at US military bases.
Nearly 200 Americans were released from quarantine at the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, on February 11, marking the first successful US quarantine in nearly 60 years.
After that, group of 166 evacuees were released from the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station on February 18, and 180 others were released from the Travis Air Force Base the same day. Two days later, another 63 evacuees left the Miramar base symptom-free.
None of those passengers tested positive for the virus.
Both patients had recently traveled to China and isolated themselves upon returning to the US. One is in Sacramento County, and that patient is no longer symptomatic, according to public-health officials. The other is in Humboldt County and also doing well.
The Wisconsin patient had "a history of travel to Beijing, China, prior to becoming ill," according to the state's health department.
The individual was quarantined at home, officials added, but they declined to provide further details.
"The risk of getting sick from 2019 novel coronavirus in Wisconsin is very low," state health officer Jeanne Ayers said in a statement. "We are responding aggressively to the situation and monitoring all developments."
The San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency announced that the coronavirus patients there are a husband and a wife, both 57 years old. The man recently traveled to Wuhan then passed the virus to his wife after returning to California.
The couple was transferred by a specialty ambulance to a hospital at the University of California, San Francisco after both patients "showed worsening symptoms," the San Benito health agency said in a statement.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department said the woman contracted the virus while visiting Wuhan.
"She has stayed home since she arrived except for two times to seek outpatient medical care," Sara Cody, the county's health officer, told reporters. "She has been regularly monitored and was never sick enough to be hospitalized."
The woman's family was also isolated and remained in their home, Cody added.
Officials said the two cases in Santa Clara County were not related. The other patient was a man who also recently visited China: He returned from a trip to Wuhan and Shanghai on January 24.
Cody said the patient did not leave his home except to seek medical care, so he came into contact with "very few individuals" after his return from China. However, he visited the Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose, where five healthcare workers were exposed to the coronavirus. They were told to stay home until February 11.
The man did not need to be hospitalized and was being treated at home, Cody said.
Department officials said in a statement that the man was in his 20s and lived in Boston.
He sought medical care shortly after arriving in the US, and authorities monitored his contacts for symptoms.
On January 22, a Wuhan resident who was traveling through Los Angeles International Airport on his way to China told airport staff that he wasn't feeling well and was immediately taken to a local hospital.
Another case was identified in Orange County. The patient there was kept in isolation at a hospital.
In Arizona, meanwhile, a patient in Maricopa County was isolated. Health officials described the person as "a member of the Arizona State University community" who did not live in university housing.
All three people had recently traveled to the US from Wuhan.
The woman traveled to Wuhan in December to care for her elderly father, then returned to Chicago on January 13.
She did not exhibit any symptoms while traveling but told her doctor a few days after returning that she was feeling unwell. She was sent to a local hospital, where she was isolated and given fluids. Doctors treated her symptoms much like they would treat pneumonia.
As of January 24, the woman was in stable condition, according to Chicago's ABC7 News. Local health officials said she did not take public transportation or attend any public gatherings.
"I want to start by stating clearly: This is a single travel-associated case, not a local emergency," said Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, according to ABC7.
The woman's spouse had not traveled to China. His case was the first instance in which the coronavirus spread from person to person in the US.
Twenty US airports are screening passengers for the virus. Flights in and out of Wuhan have been canceled.
The man who contracted the virus landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport before those protocols were instated. He did not exhibit any symptoms while traveling. Health officials said they were able to detect this case early, and the man was put under strict isolation.
Chris Spitters, a health officer for the Snohomish Health District, said on January 21 that the man was "hospitalized out of an abundance of precaution and for short-term monitoring, not because there was severe illness."
A spokesman at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett told The Daily Herald on January 24 that the man was in good health.
As of February 2, US citizens returning home who have been in China's Hubei province within the past 14 days can be quarantined for up to two weeks.
The CDC recommends that all travelers frequently wash their hands with soap and water and scrub for at least 20 seconds. They should refrain from touching their eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
Sarah Al-Arshani and Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed reporting for this story.
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