Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak tweets he could be ‘patient zero’ for coronavirus in US

Steve Wozniak and his wife were back from a trip to China following which they caught a flu.

No, Steve Wozniak doesn’t have the coronavirus. (AP)

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on Tuesday took to Twitter and claimed that he and his wife Janet just returned from China and might have been "patient zero" in the US.

"Checking out Janet's bad cough. Started January 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in the US," Wozniak tweeted tagging the West Coast Sports Institute in Santa Clara. 

Checking out Janet's bad cough. Started Jan. 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in U.S. (@ West Coast Sports Institute in Santa Clara, CA) https://t.co/MRNHqithEU

— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) March 2, 2020

The fear of being diagnosed with coronavirus was however short-lived for him. A report by USA Today mentioned Janet Wozniak saying that she got herself checked and was actually diagnosed with a sinus infection.

Steve Wozniak described the experience as the "worst flu of our lives." He mentioned that he was scheduled to make a quite a few appearances in Las Vegas after returning from China but could only make it to a couple of them as he lost his voice.

"We cancelled everything else to head home, but I couldn't move out of bed for two days," he was quoted as saying by USA Today.

Steve Wozniak said his wife was coughing up blood and was told by the hospital that she visited that it wasn't an American flu. The Apple co-founder said that he has informed the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) but instead received a form advising them to wash hands.

Talking about his "patient zero" tweet that alarmed everyone, Steve Wozniak said it was "kind of a joke."

"I think that our GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms better fit some other flu because you rarely hear of that with COVID-19," he added.

The novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the globe. The virus, first detected in December 2019 in China's Wuhan, has so far claimed 2,945 lives in China alone. The death toll in the United States rose to six on Monday.

Fresh cases of coronavirus have been reported in India. On Monday, two people - one from Delhi and other from Telangana - tested positive for the virus.