Second case of coronavirus confirmed among Sonoma County Princess Cruises’ passengers

A second Sonoma County resident aboard a Princess Cruises voyage on the Grand Princess ship from San Francisco to Mexico in February has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, county public health officials said Thursday.

That person, and another local resident confirmed to have the virus, are being treated in isolation rooms at an unidentified local hospital.

Hours after that disclosure escalated the public’s unease here about the global outbreak, Keysight Technologies, a major county employer, became the first local company to indefinitely close operations over worries a single worker who also was a passenger on the sickened ship also could be exposed to the infectious disease.

The confirmation of the second local resident ill with the virus comes a day after an elderly Placer County man on that same Mexico voyage died after developing a serious illness from the coronavirus. He’s the only person in California to die of the disease. His death prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency to intensify efforts statewide to combat the virus.

Sonoma County health officials, who had declared a local public health emergency Monday, are focusing their disease control investigation on a Sonoma County Airport Express shuttle bus the two residents hospitalized with coronavirus - and 23 other Grand Princess cruise passengers - took to Santa Rosa after they left the ship that sailed Feb. 11 from the Port of San Francisco and ?returned home Feb. 21.

“We know that the two presumptive positive cases were on that shuttle, and that means that the other passengers are considered to have higher risk than other passengers who possibly didn’t have as much direct exposure,” Dr. Celeste Philip, the county’s health officer, said Thursday.

Local health officials said a test conducted by the California Department of Public Health confirmed the county’s second patient has COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. It’s afflicting 98,000 people in at least 81 countries as of Thursday night. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing another test to confirm a second local resident’s diagnosis.

The unidentified Keysight employee, one of about 1,500 people working at the company’s Santa Rosa campus, is at home under self-quarantine with flu-like symptoms, receiving medical treatment and awaiting a test for the coronavirus.

“In an overabundance of caution, Keysight has decided to temporarily close the Santa Rosa campus until further notice,” company spokeswoman Denise Idone said. “Employees will be working from home while the site is thoroughly cleaned prior to reopening.”

Philip said local health officials and medical professionals are still trying to pinpoint precise symptoms coronavirus patients exhibit when they become sick. She said sometimes it’s not the typical fever, cough or respiratory problems, but other conditions such as gastrointestinal problems.

Once potential coronavirus patients have been identified, public health workers set out to document a recent history of where patients have been and with whom they may have been in contact.

“Have you been to church, gone into shopping areas, run errands, doctors offices, we do spend a lot of time asking about those potential exposures,” Philip said, noting the information gathering is crucial disease control work. “Part of what we ask is not just where did you go, but how long were you there.”

The 25 cruise shuttle passengers have been contacted or have received messages from health officials asking them to call the county health department. Philip said health officials are determining whether these passengers have any symptoms of the virus since returning home, or had any while on the 10-day cruise.

The cruise passengers who say they are having virus or flu-like symptoms are told to contact their doctors so samples can be obtained for testing. Philip said the county public health lab should be able to do coronavirus testing by early next week, rather than relying on state and federal agencies outside the area.

Tests confirming Grand Princess passengers contracted COVID-19 came more than a week after people had returned home to their normal daily lives, jobs, the grocery store, golfing with friends, among other things. During that time as national news continued reporting the rapid virus spread, Sonoma County health officials provided little guidance, according to a some cruise ship passengers who have tried to reach public health workers to get advice and ask questions.

“That seems way, way, way behind what they should have been doing,” said Grand Princess passenger Suzi Schultz, a Santa Rosa resident who opted to stay home and avoid contact with others as soon as she learned her cruise trip was linked to the virus outbreak. She came home with a fever and stomach trouble, but has fully recovered.

As of Thursday, county health officials have been contacting all 78 local residents - including the 25 who rode the shuttle bus at the center of the county health officials’ coronavirus investigation - who had traveled on the February cruise to Mexico, advising them to either stay home for 14 days, or seek medical attention if they have possible symptoms of a viral infection.

Princess Cruises on Wednesday had provided a passenger list to the county identifying the 78 local residents on the recent virus-?stricken Grand Princess cruise to Mexico. The ?14-day window of risk for people exposed to the virus on that February voyage ends Friday night, county health officials said.

The Grand Princess can carry 2,600 passengers and 1,150 crew members, according to Princess Cruises’ website. Sonoma County Airport Express general manager Tony Geraldi confirmed the company’s shuttle service from the Port of San Francisco had transported Grand Princess cruise passengers, including people now under treatment for the coronavirus. Geraldi referred additional questions to the shuttle firm’s corporate owner in Virgina, Groome Transportation. Calls to Groome were not returned Thursday.

Also, Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital has issued quarantine orders to at least 30 of its hospital workers who came in contact with a patient with the coronavirus, the union representing most front-line hospital staff said Thursday.

Sutter officials would not say if the patient who exposed the hospital workers was either of two Grand Princess cruise passengers who are local residents being treated in isolation at a Santa Rosa hospital, or a third passenger transferred earlier in February to a local hospital from Travis Air Force Base in Solano County. That person has returned to the United States with COVID-19 after sailing in Japan on virus-stricken Diamond Princess, another Princess Cruises’ ship.

The quarantine order for 30 staff members appears to be the largest reported involving a hospital in California, said Sean Wherley, spokesman with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

A Sutter spokeswoman said in a statement “the safety of our patients and employees” is top priority. The hospital continues to update protocols regarding coronavirus “in accordance with best practices established by federal, state and local authorities.”

A spokesman for hospital operator Kaiser Permanente in Sonoma and Marin counties issued a statement Thursday, saying an undisclosed number of employees at “some of our facilities” who may have been exposed to the virus were sent home “out of extreme caution” for a 14-day observation period.

St. Joseph Health, owner of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, is not currently monitoring any patients with coronavirus or anybody suspected of having the disease, a spokesperson said Thursday.

Staff Writer Kevin Fixler contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.