California optimistic despite unique virus case

California Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he is confident the state can track and contain the possible spread of the coronavirus, including what may be the first case of "community transmission" in the US.

Prior cases in the US involved those who had traveled to China or had close contact with a spouse who recently returned from overseas. A newly discovered case in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, involves a patient who hasn't had contact with a known carrier or traveled abroad.

"We're meeting this moment with the kind of urgency that's necessary," Newsom said at a news conference in Sacramento. "People should go about their day-to-day lives with some common sense. I don't want to instill any sense of new anxiety."

The governor said California officials are working closely with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He stressed that the effort to limit the spread of the new strain of the virus is well funded.

The case of unknown origin was left undiagnosed for days because a request for testing wasn't initially granted, according to officials at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

In response to the first case of "community transmission" of the coronavirus in California, health officials have begun tracking down people who may have come in contact with the Solano County patient to halt further spread of the disease, also called COVID-19.

"We have a tracking protocol that's best in class," the governor said. "I'm not worried about money."

He said the CDC will send 10 people to California to interview those who may have come in contact with the patient.

"Nothing is more important at this point than contact-tracing," Newsom said.

The patient, a resident of Solano County, wasn't immediately tested for the virus because the person's history didn't fit CDC criteria for establishing risk from the new strain of the coronavirus.

The patient was brought to the University of California at Davis teaching hospital in Sacramento, which has treated other coronavirus patients and followed standard precautions. Nevertheless, several employees at a Vallejo hospital where the woman was treated earlier, were asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures, officials said.

Dr Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said there is no known connection between the new case and Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers who were exposed to the virus overseas and quarantined at Travis Air Force Base, which is in Solano County.

"The (Solano County) patient had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual," she told reporters at the news conference.

Prior to the Solano County case, all 59 cases in the US were traced to people who had traveled abroad or had been in contact with those who had visited China.

Prior cases included 14 people who had traveled in China, or their spouses had; three people who were evacuated from Wuhan in China, and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess.

The governor said privacy laws prohibit release of information about the Solano County patient, including employment and residence. But he said key information about the virus will be released when pertinent to reassure the public.

He said California has "just a few hundred" testing kits on hand, but noted the CDC is "moving expeditiously" to send more to allow the state to "exponentially expand our capacity to advance testing protocols".

Newsom, a Democrat, has sued US President Donald Trump over greenhouse emissions from cars and illegal immigration but stressed, "We have a good working relationship with this administration" and vowed "not to politicize" a public health issue.

Los Angeles officials also said they are working closely with the CDC.

"The risk from the novel coronavirus 2019 to spread in Los Angeles is deemed to be low at this time," the county Health Department said in a statement.

The number of cases in the US is extremely small, but infections could increase rapidly and mirror the outbreaks in Italy or South Korea, a researcher warned.

"It's possible to say suddenly we'll have 20 or 30 cases from one particular place," Dr Jeffrey Klausner, an adjunct professor of epidemiology at UCLA, told the Daily Beast. "People should expect that, but people should not be overly concerned."

While the new strain of the coronavirus appears to be highly contagious, so far it is not as deadly as SARS, which killed nearly 10 percent of those infected compared with about 2 percent who die after exposure to the new strain of the coronavirus.

The flu season, which starts in September and can run through May, has killed about 10,000 people so far in the US, the CDC reported.

On Jan 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern" but not a pandemic. It didn't recommend travel or trade restrictions. But with cases in 45 countries outside China and rapid spread of the virus in South Korea, Italy and Iran, WHO said health officials have now reached a "decisive point" in the battle against it.

On Thursday, South Korea announced 505 new confirmed cases — the nation's largest daily increase since the outbreak began — and a 13th death.

Italy, center of the largest number of infections outside Asia, said the number of cases increased to 528 Thursday, up from 400 Wednesday, a 32 percent increase. The coronavirus also has been reported in the Middle East, including an increasing number of cases in Iran.

Israel said Thursday it had diagnosed the first citizen in the nation with the coronavirus. The infected man had visited Italy and spent four days in Israel before he was diagnosed, raising the possibility he had unknowingly infected others.

There are now seven Israelis known to be infected. Six contracted the disease while quarantined on the Diamond Princess. Israel advised its citizens to avoid travel to Italy and said it would bar entry to all foreigners traveling from that nation.