First U.S. coronavirus case of unknown origin confirmed in Northern California, CDC says
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Officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the nation’s first coronavirus case of unknown origin Wednesday in Northern California in the latest sign of the virus’ rapid spread.
“It is a confirmed case. There is one in Northern California,” CDC spokesman Scott Pauley told The Sacramento Bee just before 4 p.m. Wednesday.
In the Northern California case, “the individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in Sacramento County. The individual had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual,” California Department of Public Health officials said in a news release Wednesday evening. State public health officials in Sacramento, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the case is the first person-to-person transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
Late Wednesday, officials at the Sacramento hospital revealed in a memo that the patient had arrived on Feb. 19 but had not been tested by CDC officials until Sunday.
Earlier cases of person-to-person transmission in Illinois and in San Benito County came “after close, prolonged interaction with a family member who returned from Wuhan, China, and had tested positive for COVID-19,” California Department of Public Health officials said in their Wednesday statement.
Dr. Sonia Angell, the state’s public health officer, called the outbreak an “evolving situation” that the state had been monitoring since the first cases in China late last year. but added “there is a lot we already know.”
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“We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California,” Angell said in prepared remarks.
In such cases, public health officials trace the person’s contacts as they sleuth out where and how the person may have become infected and whether others have been exposed.
To date, public health officials worldwide have reported 2,770 deaths resulting from the coronavirus, 99 percent of them in mainland China. More than 81,300 cases of the illness have confirmed globally. All but 1,966 of those cases have been in China. The CDC has reported 60 cases in the United States, 45 of whom were U.S. citizens evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and from Wuhan, China.
The Washington Post originally reported the story, citing a person briefed on the case. President Donald Trump briefed reporters Wednesday at the White House on the federal response to the outbreak. Vice President Mike Pence will lead the government’s response to the virus, Trump said.
The Wednesday development comes a day after the CDC’s grim warning that a pandemic was nearing and that U.S. cities, communities and hospitals would have to ramp up for the virus’ spread.
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“Now is the time for U.S. businesses, hospitals and communities to begin preparing for the possible spread of COVID-19,” CDC officials posted Tuesday afternoon on the agency’s Twitter account.
In a CDC situation summary Tuesday, CDC officials said that more coronavirus cases are “likely to be identified in the coming days, including more cases in the United States.” The CDC added that “person-to-person spread will likely continue to occur, including in the United States.”
The CDC again stressed its concerns over the virus’ global reach in a Wednesday news briefing before Trump spoke to reporters.
“The fact this virus has caused illness – including illness resulting in death, and sustained person-to-person spread is concerning,” spokesman Benjamin Haynes said, according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the CDC. “These factors meet two of the criteria of the pandemic. The world moves closer towards meeting the third criteria: Worldwide spread of the new virus.”
Trump on Wednesday likened the deadly virus to the flu, saying washing hands is important to ward off the illness.
“You have to wash hands – stay clean – the things you do when you have the flu,” Trump said. “You want to treat this like you treat the flu.”
The new California case brings the confirmed total in the U.S. to 60, but Trump on Wednesday rejected assertions that the disease’s continued spread is a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t think it’s inevitable,” the president told reporters. “I think there’s a chance it could get fairly or substantially worse, but I don’t think it’s inevitable.”
Trump also cited a reported case in Brazil, saying he is working closely with President Jair Bolsonaro to bring U.S. nationals working there back home and pushed back on questions about his relationship with China leader Xi Jinping and its impact on the effort to curb the virus’ spread.
Xi, Trump said, is “working so hard on the problem. There’s a significant group of very talented people working on the problem. He wants it to go away from China and go away fast.”
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The news Wednesday came as San Francisco and Orange County each declared states of emergency as steps to address the virus. Orange County also backed Costa Mesa’s bid to block coronavirus patients from being housed in their city, announcing plans to file a friend of the court brief in U.S. District Court.
Orange County’s moves are both a proactive response to a virus threatening to grow into a pandemic; and an emphatic signal to the Orange County city of 114,000, stoking the debate over where patients will be housed as federal and local governments continue to respond to the virus.
A federal judge this week extended an earlier temporary restraining order filed by city of Costa Mesa to block the possible transfer of dozens of people now housed at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield to a former residential and care facility in the city about an hour south of Los Angeles.
Costa Mesa city leaders asked for the emergency order last week on word that the federal government was planning to bus as many as 50 people – many former passengers of the Yokohama, Japan-docked Diamond Princess – from Travis, as early as last weekend.
But the CDC’s Pauley told The Bee on Tuesday that it had no plans to send Travis evacuees to Orange County.
“There is no need for them to move” from the base, Pauley said.
“Protecting the well-being and maintaining the safety of Orange County residents is our highest priority, said Orange County Board of Supervisors’ chairwoman Kathleen Steel, in prepared remarks Wednesday, adding that she supported Costa Mesa’s effort “until we have all the information to ensure all the adequate and necessary safeguards and precautions are established.”
Also on Wednesday, nine residents in Merced County and nine people in Tulare County in California’s Central Valley volunteered for monitoring as a precaution against conronavirus after recently traveling to China.
The Merced and Tulare reports come two days after Fresno County authorities confirmed dozens of Fresno-area residents had also undergone voluntary monitoring since early February for the virus after recently traveling to mainland China.
Coronavirus info and tips from the CDC
The National Safety Council offers these tips on preventing the spread of viruses such as COVID-19:
Wash your hands frequently with soap and water. If you can’t get to soap and water, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol.
Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
Don’t get too close to people who are sick.
Stay home when you are sick, and see a doctor immediately to be evaluated for 2019-nCoV. And employers should insist workers fully recovers before returning to work.
If you have traveled to areas with heightened levels of exposure, inform your employer immediately.
Businesses should avoid sending staff on business trips to areas where there have been outbreaks. Currently, the U.S. State Department is advising against all travel to China.
