Coronavirus updates: Placer patient dies; new California cases; Stockton student exposed
A Placer County patient who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, county officials announced Wednesday morning, a day after that person’s diagnosis was disclosed to the public.
The patient was an elderly adult with existing health conditions who had been isolated at Kaiser Permanente Roseville in “critically ill” condition, Placer County said in a news release late Wednesday morning.
Ten health care workers at the hospital and five emergency responders who were exposed to the patient have been placed in quarantine, according to the news release. They have not exhibited symptoms as of Wednesday morning.
The patient was likely exposed during international travel Feb. 11-21 on a Princess cruise ship that traveled from San Francisco to Mexico, the county news release said.
The death represents the first due to coronavirus in California and first in the United States outside of Washington state, where the death toll had risen to 10 as of midday Wednesday.
Six new L.A. County cases in 48 hours
The coronavirus outbreak continues to develop in California.
Los Angeles County public health officials said in a Wednesday morning press conference there have been six new cases of the coronavirus confirmed in the past 48 hours, with Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, declaring a local health emergency.
All six cases were linked to travel or known contact with a confirmed, existing case of COVID-19, health officials said.
Stockton college student exposed
San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton announced Wednesday that one of its students, who was working at a medical facility and treating a patient, was exposed to the coronavirus.
The student was showing no symptoms of the virus and has started a 14-day self-isolation period “out of an abundance of caution” in accordance with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, college officials said in a news release.
“This is an exposure only,” according to the release. “There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus within the Delta College community.”
Officials said the health sciences student on Sunday was working at a medical facility outside of San Joaquin County, and the patient being treated had not tested positive for the coronavirus at that time. The college learned of the student’s exposure to the coronavirus Wednesday morning.
The student was on the Delta College campus Monday, before it was known that the student had been exposed, officials said.
“We understand that this might cause concern,” officials said in the news release. “However, the San Joaquin County Department of Public Health says that the risk to Delta College students, staff and faculty is very low.”
As a precaution, crews were sanitizing all relevant areas on campus, officials said. There were no plans to close the campus or cancel classes or events, the school officials announced after seeking guidance from public health experts.
The school officials asked students, faculty and campus staff to check for updates on the Delta College coronavirus webpage updates at deltacollege.edu/coronavirus.
Placer and Contra Costa counties report new cases
Contra Costa and Placer counties each reported an additional case of the illness Tuesday evening. The latter declared a local health emergency Tuesday, prior to the patient’s death.
In separate statements, Placer County reported that an older adult patient in isolation at a local hospital, becoming that county’s second reported case of the virus; and Contra Costa Health Services said it confirmed the first locally originating case of COVID-19 involving a resident of the East Bay Area county. Both were presumptive positives, tested by local public health labs and awaiting further confirmation from the CDC.
Placer officials say the now-deceased patient was likely exposed to the virus while on a Grand Princess cruise ship that went from San Francisco to Mexico between Feb. 11 and Feb. 22, according to the county news release. Another case linked to that cruise ship was reported by Sonoma County health officials, The Press Democrat reports.
The Contra Costa case, though, is believed to be “community spread,” with health officials saying in a Tuesday evening statement that the patient has no known contact with an infected individual and no known travel to a high-risk area. The case is the fourth for Contra Costa County, with the other three being treated in hospitals there after being repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship last month.
Two more in Santa Clara
Santa Clara County on Tuesday also announced two additional cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total there to a California-leading 11. Health officials are still investigating the potential source of exposure for those two most recent cases, the county said in a news release, and has already had two cases “determined to be community transmission.”
Cases of the coronavirus that are believed to be contracted through community exposure have now been reported in Santa Clara, Solano, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties.
According to ABC 7, the Contra Costa County patient is an adult male and is also in critical condition at a hospital.
The Placer County coronavirus patient is the second case there in two days. The first was a Placer resident employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville who was among 93 health care workers exposed to a Solano County woman believed to be the first U.S. instance of community-transmitted coronavirus.
Where in California has the coronavirus been reported?
Public health officials have noted presumptive positive or CDC-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the following counties as of Tuesday evening. These include Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China, or the Diamond Princess, who have been treated at hospitals in California.
▪ Alameda
▪ Humboldt
▪ Los Angeles
▪ Orange
▪ Placer
▪ Sacramento
▪ San Benito
▪ San Diego
▪ Santa Clara
▪ San Mateo
▪ Solano
▪ Sonoma
What are the U.S. and worldwide totals?
As of Wednesday morning, a map maintained by Johns Hopkins University showed more than 94,000 cases of the coronavirus reported globally. More than 80,000 of those have been in mainland China, followed by South Korea with over 5,600, Iran with close to 3,000 and Italy with just over 2,500.
The United States has surpassed 125 COVID-19 infections, which is about double the total reported late last week by Johns Hopkins.
The majority of the 3,214 deaths have come in the Hubei province of China (more than 2,870 fatalities as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins). Eleven deaths have been reported in the United States, 10 in Washington state and one in California.
The World Health Organization has given the coronavirus outbreak a “very high” risk factor assessment but has not declared it a global pandemic, due to the high majority of virus activity occurring in China.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 8:02 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: Placer patient dies; new California cases; Stockton student exposed."
