California reports first coronavirus death, in Placer County; L.A. County declares emergency

BY SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, COLLEEN SHALBY

MAR 4, 2020 | 12:18 PM

California on Wednesday reported its first death related to coronavirus.

Placer County Public Health officials announced that a patient who had tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a cruise to Mexico last month died. The individual was an elderly adult with underlying health conditions and was the county’s second confirmed case of COVID-19, reported Tuesday night. Officials said that close contacts of the patient were being quarantined and monitored for the illness.

The person’s likely exposure occurred during international travel on a Princess cruise ship that departed Feb. 10 from San Francisco and sailed to Mexico, returning Feb. 21, officials said.

The patient tested positive Tuesday and had been placed in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Roseville.

The person likely had minimal community exposure between returning from the cruise and arriving at the hospital by ambulance on Thursday, health officials said. Ten Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers and five emergency responders, who were exposed prior to the patient’s being put in isolation, are now in quarantine.

None of those 15 workers is exhibiting symptoms, officials said.

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It’s possible that other cruise passengers may have been exposed, officials said. Placer County Public Health is working closely with Sacramento County Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify and contact other cruise passengers.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of this patient,” Placer County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson said. “While we have expected more cases, this death is an unfortunate milestone in our efforts to fight this disease, and one that we never wanted to see.

“While most cases of COVID-19 exhibit mild or moderate symptoms, this tragic death underscores the urgent need for us to take extra steps to protect residents who are particularly vulnerable to developing more serious illness, including elderly persons and those with underlying health conditions.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the death shortly after the announcement.

“Jennifer and I extend our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones affected by this death in Placer County,” he said in a statement. “The state is working with federal officials to follow up on contact tracing of individuals that may have been exposed to provide treatment and protect public health.

“This case demonstrates the need for continued local, state and federal partnership to identify and slow the spread of this virus. California is working around the clock to keep our communities safe, healthy and informed.”

Newsom previously requested that the Legislature make $20 million available for the state to respond to the coronavirus, and announced the California Department of Public Health is dipping into its reserves of millions of n95 masks to distribute to healthcare workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus fights.

The governor told reporters on Tuesday that he’s prepared to declare a statewide emergency in the coming days if necessary to address issues such as staffing resources or to clear regulatory hurdles.

“To the extent we need additional resources, I always have the opportunity to do a declaration of emergency,” Newsom said. “We’ve already pre-drafted those things, but at this moment — as I stand here at this exact moment, and things change hour by hour — I don’t see that as necessary.”

The governor also said Tuesday that his administration is working to help address concerns about high medical bills for coronavirus testing.

“We hope to have something concrete in the next number of hours — at the latest tomorrow — to address that anxiety,” he said. “People should feel confident in their ability to get tested without getting a huge bill on the back end, and that’s the one area, when it comes to the issue of money right now, that we’re particularly focused on.”

Tracking Every Coronavirus Case in the U.S.: Full Map

By Mitch Smith, Jeremy White, Keith Collins, Allison McCann and Jin Wu / Updated March 4, 2020

The number of known coronavirus cases in the United States continues to grow quickly. As of midday Wednesday, at least 135 patients with the illness had been treated in 16 states, according to a New York Times database. Los Angeles County, Calif., which had previously had one case, announced six new diagnoses on Wednesday morning.

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Public health officials reported that the virus was spreading among people with no history of overseas travel. Schools closed. Governors declared states of emergency.

The New York Times has been tracking every case in the United States for more than a month, using information from federal, state and local officials to keep an accurate count. The numbers in this article will be updated several times a day based on the latest information from that database.

The number of patients treated in the United States remains a small fraction of those diagnosed overseas, where thousands of people have died and tens of thousands have been infected. Most states have not had any confirmed cases. But as concern about a broader outbreak spreads, here is what is known about the current cases.

Patients have been treated in 16 states.

While coronavirus has been diagnosed on both coasts and in the Midwest, it has mostly been concentrated in just a handful of states.

Combined, California and Washington account for 83 of the cases. Those patients include a mix of people who contracted the illness locally, traveled in China or were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which docked in Japan after an outbreak on board. Doctors in Nebraska, where there is a hospital unit specializing in biocontainment, have treated 13 coronavirus patients, all of them former Diamond Princess passengers.

Health officials in Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island have all reported multiple cases of coronavirus. And individual patients have been treated in North Carolina, Utah and Wisconsin.

Almost a third of U.S. patients were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Forty-three Americans who spent time aboard the ship, where the virus spread among passengers and crew members, were evacuated and treated in the United States.

Those patients, who were flown out of Japan on two U.S. government flights, have received care at hospitals in California, Nebraska, Texas, Utah and Washington State.

Dr. Matt Willis, the public health officer in Marin County, Calif., said one Diamond Princess passenger who tested positive was being monitored at a hospital there. The patient, Dr. Willis said, was “not sick at all” and eager to return home.

“We’re just sort of waiting to see what plays out as the body fights the virus,” Dr. Willis said. “And potentially it could be weeks. And that’s tying up a precious hospital bed for a long time.”

Two passengers who traveled on a separate cruise last month from San Francisco to Mexico have also been diagnosed with coronavirus. Both of those patients, including an older adult who is critically ill, are being treated in California.

Many patients traveled overseas.

Though more and more unexplained cases have been identified, dozens of people with coronavirus in the United States recently spent time in a country with a larger outbreak.

A woman in Washington State who traveled to South Korea was diagnosed late last week. On Sunday, the first diagnosis in New York was announced, involving a woman who had traveled in Iran.

And over the weekend, health officials in Rhode Island said two people, including a teenager, who had returned from a school trip to Italy were diagnosed with coronavirus. Others who went on that trip were being held out of class, and the school was closed for deep cleaning.

There’s unexplained spread on the West Coast.

For weeks, nearly all the coronavirus cases in the United States could be directly connected to overseas travel or to close personal contact with someone who had recently returned from a trip. In recent days, that has started to change.

Health officials in California, Oregon and Washington State have all reported incidents of the virus turning up in people with no high-risk travel history, suggesting that it could be spreading undetected within the United States.

The toll has been especially severe at a nursing home in suburban Seattle.

Nine people have died in Washington State.

The first coronavirus deaths in the United States were reported over the weekend in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle.

The first fatality, announced Saturday, was a man in his 50s with underlying health conditions. The second, announced Sunday, was a man in his 70s who was a resident of the nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., where several cases have been identified.

On Monday, officials in Washington announced that four more people, including three nursing home residents, had died from the coronavirus. And on Tuesday, additional deaths were announced. Other residents of that facility were hospitalized in critical condition.

Several patients have already recovered.

Many people with coronavirus experience only minor symptoms, and some of the first patients in the United States have already recovered and returned to daily life. Those people include a man in Washington State, two people from China who were diagnosed while traveling in California, and a married couple in the Chicago area.

“They have now had multiple rounds of negative testing for the virus and are clinically well,” Dr. Allison Arwady, the public health commissioner in Chicago, said last month as the couple was released from isolation. “They do not need to wear masks, and neither does anyone interacting with them. They have been cleared.”