Family contacts drive COVID-19 illness in Stanislaus area. A health clinic closes
Stanislaus County public health released some additional data on a recent increase in coronavirus illness, showing the respiratory illness is spreading through person-to-person contact and transmission in the community.
As of Sunday, the county had recorded 62 cases of coronavirus caused by contact with a person who had tested positive, whether it was a family member or another close contact. That was an increase of 21 cases in that category since Wednesday of last week.
The county said 52 people had contracted the illness from transmission in the community. Twelve other cases resulted from travel and five cases were under investigation.
The county’s total number of confirmed cases jumped again from 131 to 146 in the most recent count Monday, an increase of 51 cases since last Wednesday. According to local data, 37 people have been hospitalized, two county residents have died and 77 have recovered from the disease since the first cases were reported March 11.
Modesto by far has the largest number of cases at 64. The county unincorporated area has 24, Ceres 18, Patterson 10, Turlock 7, Riverbank 6, Waterford 5 and Oakdale, Hughson and Newman less than five each.
Royjindar Singh, a county spokesman, said public health officials plan to break out the numbers under additional categories, such as household transmission or perhaps contact with co-workers, to provide more a detailed picture of the epidemic.
Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, county health officer, said last week the biggest category of transmission was coronavirus spreading among household members.
Studies on the spread of coronavirus in the United States have documented clusters of infection and severe illness as the virus spreads through close contact with infected individuals.
Infections close Los Banos health clinic
Merced County, which has three deaths, has reported 18 cases of illness caused by known exposure to an infected person, in addition to 14 cases through exposure in a health care setting and another 14 cases through community transmission.
Public health officials investigated an outbreak at a Sutter Health rural clinic in Los Banos, finding that 10 healthcare workers at the clinic tested positive.
Officials worked to identify patients and other people who visited the Los Banos clinic between March 29 and last Wednesday. The clinic was closed for thorough cleaning.
Sutter reopened the clinic Monday for video visits only, saying it’s an important access point for healthcare in the community.
“In order to keep our patients and employees safe, Sutter Health has also implemented temperature screenings at all our facilities across our network and implemented universal masking,” a Sutter spokesperson said.
Based in Sacramento, Sutter Health is affiliated with Memorial Hospital Los Banos, Memorial Medical Center in Modesto and Sutter Tracy Community Hospital.
San Joaquin County has reported 309 cases of coronavirus and 17 deaths.
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 6:31 AM.
