Sonoma County hospital admits 1st person transferred here with coronavirus

A person who has tested positive for coronavirus and was a recent passenger on the ?virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan has been transferred to a local hospital, Sonoma County public health officials said Tuesday.

The unidentified person was transported from Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, where a group of international travelers who returned last week to the United States were quarantined because of possible exposure to the virus, to the local hospital Monday night.

Although the patient has a confirmed case of coronavirus, the person has not shown any symptoms of the infection, such as fever and difficulty breathing, and was not infected here, local health officials said.

Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Celeste Philip said the patient is being monitored in an isolation area at the hospital and attending staff are under strict use of personal protective equipment. The patient poses no danger to public health, Philip said. Health officials did not identify the patient or specify the hospital to maintain the patient’s privacy.

“The transfer of this case into a county hospital should not be a cause for alarm and I can assure you that proper protocols and safety measures are being taken in the care of this patient,” Philip said.

Sonoma County is prepared to respond to COVID-19 cases and health officials have been working closely with local health care providers, the California Department of Public Health and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The one patient in the hospital is receiving care here to lessen the burden on health care providers in communities near Travis military base. The CDC said Tuesday 14 other patients who have tested positive for the virus have been transferred to hospitals in Napa, Contra Costa, San Francisco and Solano counties.

Four of the patients were transferred Monday, said Scott Pauley, a CDC spokesman working at the Travis base. Like the patient transferred to Sonoma County, the 14 other patients are also showing no COVID-19 symptoms since testing positive for the virus, he said.

Pauley said 150 people, who remain in quarantine at the Travis base, have neither tested positive for the coronavirus nor have any symptoms of it.

Sonoma County officials said local residents should contact their health care providers, if they have symptoms such as fever and cough and had close contact with someone with coronavirus symptoms who returned from China, where the virus originated, in the last 14 days.

Since Feb. 2, all travelers to the U.S. from China are being asked to self-monitor for 14 days for symptoms of the virus under the guidance of their local public health department.

Dr. Gary Green, an infectious disease expert at Sutter Medical Group of the Redwoods in Santa Rosa, said he expects coronavirus to become a pandemic, but not as severe as historic outbreaks such as SARS in 2002-2003 or the flu of 1918, when 10% those who got the virus died.

“This coronavirus seems to be fairly contagious, but it doesn’t seem to be as severe as, for example, the SARS virus or the 1918 influenza pandemic,” Green said.

Coronavirus appears to cause less severe illness in younger people and more severe illness in older people, especially those over 80. Those with weakened health or immune systems are susceptible to more severe illness, he said.

The good news, the doctor said, is that federal researchers are “way ahead of this virus compared to SARS,” which appeared in China in the fall of 2002 and was contained by the summer of 2003. By the time a SARS vaccine was developed, the spread of the virus had already subsided, he said.

Green said a coronavirus pandemic will look much like the flu season, when every country deals with viral infections at the same time.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.