In this Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, file photo, heavy equipment works at a construction site for a field hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. A patient in Southern California is third person in the US to be diagnosed with the new pneumonia-like virus from China, health officials said. (Photo: AP)

Washington (People's Daily) - The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Sunday confirmed the fifth case of the novel coronavirus in the US. 

The newly identified case was reported in Maricopa, Arizona, and found in a patient who had traveled from Wuhan, China.  

Officials with the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) reported the patient is a student at Arizona State University (ASU) and does not reside in campus housing. 

Arizona health officials said the patient is "not severely ill" and has been quarantined to prevent the illness from spreading. 

MCDPH and ADHS launched an investigation to identify others who may have had close contact with the infected patient. For those individuals who are identified for being exposed will be contacted directly, according to the state health department. 

The news comes after reports on two confirmed cases in California that were reported earlier on the same day in Los Angeles and Orange counties. One involved a male in his 30s from Washington state and a 60-something woman in Chicago, Illinois.  

In all five cases, each one involved a patient who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. According to the CDC, the patients are being hospitalized. On Sunday morning, there were almost 100 people who were being investigated for contracting the virus, the agency also said. 

Virginia’s Department of Health released a statement on Sunday that said three possible coronavirus cases were being investigated in the state’s central and northern regions.