Northern California city epicenter of coronavirus mystery,
Amid fear of spread, residents ‘preparing for the worst.’
California health officials on Friday confirmed a third case of the novel coronavirus in the heart of Silicon Valley, adding to the more than 30 already confirmed in California.
Santa Clara County Public Health Department spokesman Maury Kendall said the person is isolated at home and that other details would be provided later Friday.
A day earlier, state health officials had pegged the number of people in California with the virus at 33 after investigators announced that a hospitalized woman is believed to be the first in the U.S. to be infected without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it.
In Santa Clara, two others had previously been diagnosed. Kendall said a man who tested positive for the virus after returning from China and stayed at home was declared fully recovered on Feb. 20. A woman who had also traveled to China tested positive for the virus on Feb. 2. and remains under quarantine at home.
Meanwhile, residents of a Northern California community are at the epicenter of what officials are calling a turning point in the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus,
As infectious disease experts fanned out in Vacaville, some residents in the city of 100,000 stocked up on supplies amid fears things could get worse despite official reassurances, while others took the news in stride.
Vacaville lies between San
Francisco and Sacramento in Solano County, in the agricultural central valley and near California’s famous wine region.
It is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Travis Air Force Base, which has been used as a virus quarantine location. Public health officials said they can find no connection between the infected woman and passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were evacuated to the base when the ship was docked in Japan.
The case of the infected woman marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the U.S. because it means the virus could spread beyond the reach of preventative measures like quarantines, though state health officials said that was inevitable and that the risk of widespread transmission remains low.
But McKinsey Paz, her husband and her boss at a Vacaville private security company weren’t taking any chances. They hustled to a warehouse store Thursday to buy bottled water, canned food, staples like rice and beans and cases of toilet paper and paper towels.
“We’re not sure what’s going to happen. Panic seems to do that to you,” Paz said. “In case things get a little crazy, we didn’t want to be the last ones. We’re preparing for the worst.”
Solano County Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said public health officials have identified dozens of people — but less than 100 — who had close contact with the woman. They are quarantined in their homes and a few who have shown symptoms are in isolation, Matyas said.
Officials are not too worried, for now, about casual contact, because federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through “close contact, being within six feet of somebody for what they’re calling a prolonged period of time,” said Dr. James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health.
The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.
The case raised questions about how quickly public health officials are moving to diagnose and treat new cases. State and federal health officials disagreed about when doctors first requested the woman be tested.
Doctors at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento said they asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test the woman for the virus on Feb. 19. But they said the CDC did not approve the testing until Sunday “since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria” for the virus, according to a memo posted to the hospital’s website.
The woman first sought treatment at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, before her condition worsened and she was transferred to the medical center.