Man in Santa Clara County is 1st case of coronavirus in Northern California
Public health officials in Santa Clara County said Friday that an adult male resident is the first confirmed case in Northern California of the novel coronavirus.
The announcement about the deadly strain’s reach, which has set off anxiety among experts and the public in the U.S., came on the same day federal officials extended a quarantine for a group of Americans who arrived in Southern California on an evacuation flight from China, where the illness was first identified and has spread rapidly.
Friday’s report is the third case of coronavirus in California and the seventh in the United States made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the Santa Clara case, the man had returned home on a Jan. 24 flight to San Jose Mineta International Airport from visits to first Wuhan, China, and then Shanghai, said Dr. Sara Cody, the health officer for Santa Clara County.
“We understand that this news may be concerning,” Cody said. “But based on what we know today, the risk to residents of our community remains low.”
The man has isolated himself in his home except for two visits for medical care. Cody declined to say where the local infected man lives, how old he is, how many family members had contact with him or where he sought treatment. He is currently in “stable condition” and being monitored by the public health department.
“Although we are announcing a confirmed case today, please know that we do not have evidence to suggest that the novel coronavirus is circulating in the Bay Area or Santa Clara County or really in Northern California,” she said.
Cody said medical professionals had not deemed the man to be sick enough to be hospitalized. He had limited contact with a small number of family members in his home, Cody said, and they too are being monitored and have been instructed to isolate themselves.
“We are actually quite lucky in this case.” Cody said. “I think the contact list will be short.”
Federal officials, she said, will take care of notifying any passengers on the man’s flight about a potential exposure.
“Many of our residents travel frequently for business and personal reasons,” Cody said, “and we’re not surprised to be announcing the first case in the Bay Area and in Northern California. Actually we’ve been preparing for this possibility for weeks, knowing that we were likely going to confirm a case.
“Preventing and controlling the spread of infectious diseases is what local public health departments are built to do. It’s one of our core missions, and we are in full swing,” she said.
Following a Thursday announcement by the World Health Organization that it was declaring a global health emergency out of concern about the spread of the virus, U.S. officials on Friday did the same. As of Friday, though, there has been only one case of human-to-human transmission in the United States.
That person, a Chicago resident, got the respiratory illness from a spouse who returned home from Wuhan, China, last week.
As part of the U.S. declaration, the government temporarily restricted foreign nationals from entering the United States if they have been to China. U.S. citizens returning from China will be subjected to a 14-day quarantine. U.S. air carriers American, Delta and United have announced the suspension of flights to China.
Many flights from China entered the state before the disease was recognized and screenings at the San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York airports were put into place on Jan 17.
Meanwhile in Riverside County, the quarantine of passengers who were evacuated from Wuhan and arrived Wednesday will stay at March Air Reserve Base for 14 days to make sure nobody is infected with the coronavirus, federal authorities said.
More than 11,000 people have contracted the illness worldwide, and 259 had died, according to reports from public health agencies as of Friday evening. The illness is not as deadly as the SARS or MERS viruses, but the novel coronavirus has sparked fears in the United States and around the world.
Friday’s announcement also comes at the height of the season in the United States for influenza, a disease that afflicts millions of Americans and kills tens of thousands annually. Though the novel coronavirus has not reached that level of misery, Cody said health officials are concerned because it is new.
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” Cody said.
Misinformation has abounded about the new coronavirus, some of it coming from hoax reports on social media and conspiracy theories on websites. In Sacramento, there has been a shortage of face masks as residents prepare for a potential outbreak.
Dr. Stuart Cohen, UC Davis Health’s director of epidemiology and infection control, said it is not necessary for the general public to wear surgical masks in Sacramento. So far, the risk of infection in Northern California is small because there are no confirmed cases or even viable suspected at-risk cases, he said.
Cohen also explained that many types of coronaviruses, not just the newest strain, causes the common cold every season. “The coronavirus circulates all the time,” he said.
Public health officials urged California residents to educate themselves about the facts on coronavirus in order to better understand the risks to them and their families. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have created an online dashboard where the public can monitor the spread of new coronavirus.
Locally, researchers at UC Davis have been leading a global investigation for the last 10 years into coronaviruses and other pathogens that can be transmitted to humans.
Through partnerships with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other research institutes around the world, UCD’s Christine Kreuder Johnson, a professor of epidemiology and ecosystem health, and her colleagues have identified more than 1,100 viruses, many of them zoonotic viruses that are of public health concern.
“The name coronavirus just has to do with how they look,” Johnson said. “It looks like they have a crown when there’s pictures of them in microscopic views. They’re a hugely diverse, big family of viruses, and most mammals have coronaviruses, and they stay in mammals. Only a handful – six so far, and this would be the seventh – infect humans.”
The other six include a couple of other viruses that grabbed headlines over the last decade – SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations worldwide are basing their estimate of this new virus’ incubation period on that of the MERS incubation period.
MERS first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since spread around the world. Its symptoms typically start to appear about 5 or 6 days after a person is exposed, but that can range from 2 to 14 days.
California is more vulnerable than some other places in the United States, Johnson said, because of the large number of people in the state traveling back and forth to China.
“It does put us right on that front line,” she said.
Among the 195 people quarantined on the military base in Southern California were diplomats, infants, a football player and a theme-park designer.
Their flight was the only one organized by the State Department leaving Wuhan.
“It’s not Club Med, but we’re fortunate to be here,” said Matthew McCoy, the theme-park designer who lives in Shanghai but was in Wuhan working on a mall he is refashioning. “I try to stay busy with my work, social media and my hotel workout regimen.”
The evacuees have their temperatures taken regularly and their noses swabbed. They have been advised against shaking hands or hugging.
While the spread of the disease has been limited in California – with one case in Los Angeles, one in Orange County and the newest case in Santa Clara County – it has already had a social impact.
College students from mainland China as well as Americans in California of East Asian descent are reporting suspicious glances on public transport and rising xenophobia.
At UC Berkeley, which has a large Chinese student population, officials apologized after the university health center posted an image that included “xenophobia” among a list of “common reactions” to the coronavirus. It was condemned as giving legitimacy to racism.
Dr. Stacie San Miguel, the director of medical services at the UC San Diego’s student health center, said students and others had been flocking to physicians for checkups.
“Especially the people who have been to China and had a runny nose, they’re not sure – is this something or not something? – so there has been some anxiety,” San Miguel said.
Multiple cities – including Sacramento, Elk Grove and Stockton – have canceled their Lunar New Year celebrations.
This story was originally published January 31, 2020 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Man in Santa Clara County is 1st case of coronavirus in Northern California."
