First CA Person-To-Person COVID-19 Case Is Solano County Resident

SOLANO COUNTY, CA— The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday confirmed the first possible 2019 Novel Coronavirus — COVID-19 — California case of person-to-person transmission within the general public. The individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in nearby Sacramento County, the California Department of Public Health said.

"The individual had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual," CDPH officials said.

They won't be identified due to patient confidentiality practices.

UC Davis Medical Center officials confirmed the patient is being treated at their Sacramento hospital late Wednesday after being transferred from another hospital in the region. UC Davis officials said the patient wasn't immediately tested for the disease.

"Since the patient arrived with a suspected viral infection, our care teams have been taking the proper infection prevention (contact droplet) precautions during the patient's stay," UC Davis Health officials said in a statement Wednesday.

"Upon admission, our team asked public health officials if this case could be COVID-19," UC Davis Health said. "We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor CDPH is doing testing for coronavirus at this time. Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process."

An exact date of admission for the patient wasn't provided, but they were tested for the disease early this week.

"On Sunday, the CDC ordered COVID-19 testing of the patient and the patient was put on airborne precautions and strict contact precautions, because of our concerns about the patient's condition," UC Davis Health said. "Today, the CDC confirmed the patient's test was positive."

UC Davis Health officials said it is not the first COVID-19 patient the system has treated and the potential for spread is minimal due to precautions set into place at the hospital.

CDPH officials touted the state's health-care system and infrastructure in saying it is ready to respond to a spread of COVID-19, which originated from Wuhan, China and spread throughout Asia before finding its way across the globe, reaching every continent except Antarctica, per the
CDC's website.

"The health risk from novel coronavirus to the general public remains low at this time," CDPH officials said. "While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate. From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80
percent do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization."

Solano County And Coronavirus

Solano County is home to Travis Air Force Base, where 172 Americans were brought Feb. 16 for quarantine after they were exposed to COVID-19 as passengers aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. At least five of those passengers quarantined at Travis AFB in Fairfield have since tested positive for the coronavirus and are being treated at hospitals in and around Solano County, including in Napa, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties.

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• Cruise-Ship Coronavirus Evacuees Arrive At Travis AFB

Prior to the cruise-ship evacuees' arrival at Travis AFB, two groups of American travelers evacuated from Wuhan, China by the U.S. State Department were quarantined at the Solano County base at the direction and supervision of the CDC. The travelers were released from the base Feb. 18 and Feb. 20, respectively, after serving 14-day quarantines; according to the CDC they were not at risk of spreading the virus because they were not infected.

As of Thursday morning, there were no confirmed deaths of the disease in the U.S., CDPH officials said. Previous person-to-person transmission cases in the U.S. have been discovered in Chicago and another in San Benito County, with both cases involving infected people with family members who had returned from Wuhan and tested positive for COVID-19. There are also seven other travel-related cases and a close-contact case.

The CDPH advises community members to do the following to protect themselves from contracting or spreading disease: wash hands with soap and water; avoid touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands; avoid close contact with people who are sick; and stay away from work, school or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms such as fever and cough.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.