A snapshot of the pandemic’s scary start in Sonoma County

The pandemic that began in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 first hit home for the North Bay in late February of last year with a passenger exposed to the coronavirus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan and transferred to a Sonoma County hospital from quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Solano County.

On Feb. 26, federal health officials announced that a Solano County woman had tested positive for the virus in what was believed to be the nation’s first case of community spread, meaning the source of her exposure was unknown. She had not been traveling abroad and had not knowingly had contact with an infected person.

Then two Sonoma County residents returned home sick after taking a 10-day cruise to Mexico aboard the Grand Princess, one of whose passengers, a Rocklin man, would become the first fatality related to COVID-19 in California on March 3.

Another passenger, William Tevendale, 77, Healdsburg was the first coronavirus-related death in Sonoma County.

Though most people, including 78 Sonoma County residents, disembarked in San Francisco before the ship went on to Hawaii, scores of passengers remained aboard for the next leg of the trip, allowing coronavirus to circulate among more than 3,500 guests and crew. Upon their return, they would be held offshore while government officials determined how to get them home without exposing still more people, resulting in lengthy quarantines at Travis and two other military bases out of state.

There was by then a sense that the greater Bay Area, a coastal hub of international business and tourist travel, was destined for heartache.

Residents began donning masks and singing “Happy Birthday” while they washed raw, red hands and grew leery of approaching strangers amid alarming forecasts of widespread infection and news of growing outbreaks abroad.

For Sonoma County Health Services Director Barbie Robinson, there was intense planning and preparation but what she recalls primarily as a prolonged period of “it’s coming, it’s coming.”

The inflection point came March 14, when the county confirmed its first case of community spread, detected after officials finally received needed testing kits that enabled surveillance screening to begin among those with the flu-like symptoms of COVID-19. Marin County announced two community-spread cases the same day.

What came next were rapid-fire pronouncements that each day triggered greater disbelief, as public officials pulled back the reins on daily activity.

Gov. Gavin Newsom restricted access to bars, clubs, restaurants and tasting rooms one day. Bay Area counties adopted shelter-in-place regimes the next. Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase, 10 days into her new position, imposed a countywide stay-home order that took effect March 18, prohibiting all but the most fundamental activities.

One day after that, the entire state was put on shutdown, save those working in specific fields or engaged in activities deemed “essential” — a term that would ultimately prove divisive as weeks went on and “nonessential” business owners got left behind.

“It seems surreal still, a little bit, this last year, and it’s hard to believe it’s been a year,” Mase said in a recent interview. “Yet, we’ve been through it, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.