2nd US case of one who got virus from community
California health officials on Friday confirmed the second case of novel coronavirus in america believed to have been transmitted to somebody who didn't travel internationally or can be found in close contact with anyone who had it.
Health officials in San Jose said the individual was an older adult woman with chronic health issues who does not have a travel history or any known connection with a traveler or infected person. It comes a day after state officials said a female hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento had contracted the condition after no known contact.
"This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission, but the extent is still not yet determined," said Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County and director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department.
Officials could actually get quick confirmation for the reason that test was done by the Santa Clara County Public Health Laboratory with test kits received from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials submitted the girl specimens for testing Thursday and received the results Thursday night.
The California Department of Public Health said Friday that the state will receive enough kits from the CDC to check up to at least one 1,200 people, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom complained to federal health officials that the state had already exhausted its initial 200 test kits.
State official also said the government decided it will not need to utilize the Fairview Developmental Center in Orange County to isolate passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise liner. That's as a result of the imminent end of the isolation period for all those passengers and the relatively small number of persons who finished up testing positive, officials said.
The CDC had at first estimated that as many as half the passengers would test positive. However the state said the actual number has been "substantially lower." A federal judge had granted officials in Costa Mesa a non permanent restraining order blocking the transfers at that time when state officials said the facility have been "critically needed."
Cody said the newly confirmed case in Santa Clara County is not associated with two previous cases for the reason that county, nor to others in the state.
The Santa Clara County resident was treated at a local hospital and is not recognized to have traveled to Solano County, where public health officials have discovered dozens of folks - but significantly less than 100 - who had close contact with the case announced Thursday. They are quarantined within their homes. and some who have demonstrated symptoms are in isolation, officials said.
At UC Davis Medical Center, at least 124 registered nurses and other health care employees were sent home for "self-quarantine" following the woman with the virus was admitted, National Nurses United, a nationwide union representing RNs, said Friday.
"Despite University of California medical facilities being generally better prepared and equipped to treat challenging medical cases, the ... case highlights the vulnerability of the country's hospitals to the virus," the union said.
The case of the infected women marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the U.S. because it means the virus could spread beyond the reach of precautionary measures like quarantines, though state health officials said that was inevitable and that the chance of widespread transmission remains low.
California public health officials on Friday said more than 9,380 persons are self-monitoring after arriving on commercial flights from China through LA and San Francisco. That's up from the 8,400 that Newsom cited on Thursday, though officials said the quantity increases daily as more flights arrive.
Officials aren't too worried, for the present time, about everyday contact, because federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through "close contact, being within six feet of somebody for what they're calling an extended time frame," said Dr. James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health.
The virus could cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to the way the flu spreads.
As infectious disease authorities fanned out in the Solano County city of Vacaville, some residents in the town between SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA and Sacramento stocked up on supplies amid fears things could get worse despite official reassurances, while some took the news headlines in stride.
The woman locally who has coronavirus first sought treatment at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, before her condition worsened and she was used in the infirmary in Sacramento.
Sacramento County's top health official told The Sacramento Bee on Friday that he expects several medical staff to check positive themselves in the next few days. Numerous personnel at both hospitals have already been tested, however the tests were sent to labs approved by the CDC and generally take 3 to 4 days to complete.
Peter Beilenson, Sacramento County's health services director, said he expects even those that test positive to be only mildly ill.
Confusion over how quickly the girl was tested for coronavirus concerned McKinsey Paz, who works at an exclusive security firm in Vacaville. The business has recently stockpiled 450 face masks and is scrambling for more "because they're tricky to find." The business's owner bought enough cleaning and disinfectant supplies to both scrub down the office and send home with employees.
But they appeared to be at the extreme for preparations.
Eugenia Kendall was wearing a nose and mouth mask, but in concern with anything like the common cold. Her disease fighting capability is impaired because she actually is undergoing chemotherapy, and she has always been taking such precautions.
"We're not paranoid. We're just trying to be practical," said her husband of 31 years, Ivan Kendall. "We wipe the shopping carts if they have them, and when I get back in the automobile I wipe my hands - and just expect the best."
Experts in both communities are interviewing immediate family members and expanding their net to add more distant members of the family who may have experienced contact, social gatherings like church that the patient may have attended and any possible time spent at the job or events such as a concert.
Besides the woman, all the other cases in the U.S. have already been for individuals who traveled abroad or had close contact with others who traveled.
Earlier U.S. cases included 14 in persons who returned from outbreak areas in China, or their spouses; three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan; and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise liner.
The number of men and women sickened by the virus hovered Friday around 83,000, and there have been a lot more than 2,800 deaths, most of them in China.
