Coronavirus updates: Person who died may have been exposed; people on cruise ship tested
The chief of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said Thursday that officers had worked unsuccessfully to save the life of a 72-year-old man who might have been exposed to the new coronavirus aboard a cruise ship.
“Our officers performed CPR on a 72-year-old patient who was unconscious and not breathing,” according to a department Twitter post. “Unfortunately, the patient didn’t survive.”
The department said the individual was recently on a cruise where two passengers were suspected of having the respiratory illness. Seven public safety officers responded, five from the police side and two from the fire side, Chief Phan Ngo said during a news conference. All have been placed in self-isolation, he said, until autopsy results are available.
“I have been reassured by the county executive that they’re working their very best to make sure the autopsy report comes back as soon as possible,” Ngo said. “At this time, the officers will not be tested. We’re following county health’s advice and also CDC guidelines.”
The case shows the challenges that this new pathogen poses for public safety departments when it comes to protecting the health of officers and maintaining minimal manpower levels. Sunnyvale has 194 public safety officers, all cross-trained in both fire and police response, said Sunnyvale DPS Capt. Craig Anderson.
He did not know what protections officers used on this call but that, when performing CPR, officers typically will use gloves and a mask attached to a self-inflating bag.
“They’ll be performing chest compressions and then they’ll use what’s called a bag valve mask to provide ventilation to the patient,” Anderson said, “so there would be no mouth-to-mouth contact whatsoever.”
The new coronavirus causes fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and it can lead to severe acute lower respiratory ailments such as pneumonia. Nationwide, 12 people have died after being infected with the new coronavirus and hundreds have confirmed cases of COVID-19. Globally, almost 100,000 people have had confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 3,300 of them have died.
State, CDC officials begin testing Grand Princess passengers
The California Department of Health, working with federal partners in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered test kits Thursday to the Grand Princess ship off the coast of California, as they try to determine how many of the 2,500 aboard may have COVID-19.
“It is expected that testing on the ship will take several hours and the kits will then be transported to CDPH’s lab in Richmond for results,” CDPH officials said in an email to The Sacramento Bee.
After an elderly Rocklin man became California’s first reported coronavirus death Wednesday morning, state and county officials have declared public health emergencies and are scrambling to identify hundreds more Californians who may have been exposed during a travel voyage.
Concern has once again centered on a Princess cruise ship. The Grand Princess traveled last month round-trip from San Francisco to Mexico from Feb. 11 to Feb. 21 and a new set of passengers was already out at sea when reports surfaced of the infections.
Placer County public health officials in a statement Tuesday night said they had confirmed the county’s second case of the coronavirus, in an elderly patient who had become “critically ill” after likely being exposed to the virus while aboard the Grand Princess.
That patient became the second California resident whose illness was linked to the Grand Princess, with Sonoma County days earlier reporting a presumptive case of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, was likely contracted while on board.
Placer County on Wednesday morning reported that the critically ill patient, a 71-year-old with underlying health conditions, had died. Within hours, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency, and during his proclamation gave updates on the situation involving the Grand Princess.
Emergency declared in Sacramento County
Sacramento County declared both a public health emergency and a local emergency Thursday, assuring that its public health team will receive the funding and appropriate resources to respond to the new coronavirus.
“Our intent in proclaiming a state of emergency in response to the spread of COVID-19 is to ensure uninterrupted access to the resources necessary to keep people as safe as possible and lessen disease transmission,” said Phil Serna, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors. “The proclamation should not be considered a reason for elevated concern; in fact, it is quite the opposite as it helps us in our mission to contain the virus.”
Sacramento County has reported three confirmed cases of coronavirus, and one of those has recovered. The local proclamation follows the Wednesday announcement by California Gov. Gavin Newsom that he was declaring a state of emergency. Local governments will qualify for expanded federal and state funding only if they make these proclamations.
San Francisco reports first two COVID-19 cases
San Francisco Mayor London Breed during a press conference Thursday morning announced that the city has confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus.
Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s health director, said the two patients likely contracted the virus from “community spread,” KRON4 reported.
One patient is in their 90s and the other is in their 40s, officials said. The patients are being isolated at two separate hospitals.
What’s happening on the Grand Princess?
The Grand Princess will remain held off the coast in the San Francisco Bay Area while those potentially exposed during the trip to Mexico are tested, according to Newsom and cruise line officials.
The ship returned Feb. 21 to San Francisco, where most of its passengers, including the two confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sonoma and Placer counties, disembarked.
The cruise line company, which also operates the Diamond Princess, said Wednesday that a total of 62 passengers who had been on that voyage to Mexico stayed on the Grand Princess for its next trip, to Hawaii. Princess Cruises announced Wednesday the ship would instead sail back early to San Francisco.
Newsom on Wednesday said the plan was for the ship to remain offshore while coronavirus test kits are flown onto the ship.
“To facilitate this testing, the U.S. Coast Guard will deliver sampling kits to the ship the morning of March 5 via helicopter,” the cruise company said in an updated news release. “Our onboard medical team will administer the test and the samples will be sent in batches by helicopter to a lab in Richmond, California, across the bay from San Francisco.”
Princess Cruises says that a total of fewer than 100 passengers and crew members who may have had close contact with them were instructed to self-isolate until they can be screened. The company said the “small cluster” of coronavirus cases linked to the Grand Princess voyage is being investigated by the CDC.
Newsom said during his emergency declaration that most of the approximately 2,500 people who were on the cruise’s voyage to Mexico, and that as of Wednesday 11 passengers and 10 crew members aboard the ship had reported symptoms of the coronavirus.
According to Princess Cruises, the Grand Princess’ planned call Thursday to Ensenada, Mexico, and Saturday’s planned Hawaiian cruise departure have each been canceled. No other Princess cruises have been canceled as of Thursday morning, the company said on Twitter.
What does governor’s emergency declaration mean?
The governor’s emergency declaration will waive competitive bidding requirements, free up public property for use by health officials and introduce provisions against price gouging amid reports of skyrocketing prices for hand sanitizer and other sanitary items.
Separately on Wednesday, California learned it would receive $37 million in federal emergency funds to combat coronavirus.
Nevada reports first case in resident near Las Vegas
The Southern Nevada Health District in a statement Thursday morning announced the state’s first presumptive positive case of COVID-19 in a Clark County resident, a man in his 50s.
The patient has been hospitalized and is in isolation. The man reported he recently traveled to Washington state, which has so far reported multiple instances of community spread of the illness and 10 of the 11 U.S. deaths reported as of Thursday. He’d also traveled to Texas.
The health district says it is working to identify close contacts of that patient, but said the immediate risk to the general public in Clark County remains low.
Las Vegas is the seat of Clark County, but officials did not say in which part of the county the patient resides or is hospitalized.
How is Placer County responding?
Placer County declared a local health emergency Tuesday in response to the Rocklin patient’s confirmed case of the new coronavirus, the second such case in the county. The first case was a Placer resident employed at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville who was exposed to a Solano County patient, the first reported U.S. instance of the coronavirus with no recent international travel or contact with an existing patient.
Placer County on Wednesday morning announced that the second patient had died, disclosing in that announcement that he had been treated in isolation at Kaiser Roseville after being rushed there Feb. 27. Princess cruise line officials said the man was 71 years old.
Ten Kaiser Permanente employees and five emergency responders who were exposed to the patient prior to the coronavirus diagnosis are reportedly in isolation as a precaution, though none had shown symptoms as of Wednesday. Three of the five first responders were Rocklin firefighters, according to a statement by the fire department.
The Placer County Office of Education held its weekly meeting with local health officials Wednesday. Michelle Eklund, chief communications officer for the county’s office of education, said schools are not yet planning to cancel any public events on campus, but that districts are planning the next steps for if the virus spreads more widely. Throughout the state, K-12 schools, community colleges and four-year universities have suspended some of their study-abroad programs or planned overseas trips.
School districts in Placer are continuing to take guidance from local health officials and the CDC, and some in the county have increased their cleaning protocols, according to Eklund. About 75,000 students go to school in Placer County.
‘Fighting tooth and nail’: Nurses say hospitals are unprepared
Unions representing nurses and health workers are saying that hospitals across the nation are not well-equipped to protect employees who are becoming exposed to the coronavirus while treating patients.
The National Nurses United union cited the situation the developed last UC Davis Medical Center, where dozens of and other health care workers were sent home due to exposure to a Solano County patient who was transferred there Feb. 19.
“Nurses are fighting tooth and nail with their employers to talk about the risk of exposure for any number of diseases, whether it be airborne, whether it be blood-borne,” said Stephanie Roberson, a California lobbyist representing registered nurses. “ ... right now at one of our facilities, UCD, 36 of our nurses, 88 other health care workers have now been sent home because they have been exposed to the patient that has tested positive for coronavirus, so this is extremely alarming.”
UC Davis Health CEO David Lubarsky and UC Davis Medical Center CEO Brad Simmons in a joint statement said the medical center is handling the patient in line with its protocols for any disease that requires airborne precautions and monitoring, and also called the numbers cited by Roberson inaccurate.
“Our union ... is formally requesting that hospitals, health clinics and nursing homes, where we represent staff, immediately provide detailed information about how they intend to identify and isolate patients with the coronavirus as well as their plans for training caregivers on how to avoid contracting the virus,” Sal Rosselli, the leader of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, said in a written statement.
So far, no employees of UC Davis Medical Center in isolation have tested positive for the coronavirus, but three employees who were exposed to the same patient at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital prior to the transfer have been diagnosed with the illness.
What are the California, U.S. and worldwide coronavirus totals?
As of Wednesday evening, 53 people in California had tested positive for COVID-19, according to state health officials.
Of the 53 total positive tests, 24 cases had been repatriated on flights from Wuhan, China, and the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was docked off of Japan, in February.
Out of the remaining 29 not related to repatriation, 12 cases were travel related; 10 are believed to be cases of person-to-person exposure, mainly involving health care workers; four are believed to have been contracted via “community exposure,” meaning the exact source is not known; and three cases remain under investigation.
According to totals maintained by Johns Hopkins University, the worldwide total as of Thursday morning stood just below 97,000, with more than 80,000 of those cases reported in mainland China, another 6,000 in South Korea and more than 3,000 in each of Iran and Italy.
The United States has climbed past 160 total cases and has reported 11 deaths — one in California and 10 in Washington state.
Quick reminder: What is the coronavirus?
COVID-19, the official name for the novel coronavirus currently spreading worldwide, is a respiratory illness with symptoms that include fever, cough and shortness of breath.
The World Health Organization this week said the coronavirus has a global mortality rate near 3.4 percent. Most of the reported deaths, especially in the United States, have occurred in early patients with pre-existing health conditions, health officials at all levels have said.
The virus is spread person-to-person through close contact, mainly within about 6 feet, through droplets produced during coughing and sneezing. Health officials have urged for frequent hand-washing and have said to avoid touching your face.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 8:08 AM with the headline "Coronavirus updates: Person who died may have been exposed; people on cruise ship tested."
