Coronavirus: US Death Toll 6; First East Bay Presumed Case

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — As the U.S. experienced its first known deaths as a result of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, over the weekend, the East Bay has its first presumptive case. A health care worker who lives in Alameda County and works at a hospital in Vacaville, is presumptive positive for coronavirus pending confirmation testing, according to the Alameda County Public Health Department.

The person, exposed to the community-acquired case currently hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, is in isolation at home. Alameda County has now declared a public health emergency. “This news is not unexpected in the Bay Area, and we are ready for cases here,” said Dr. Erica Pan, health officer for the Alameda County Public Health Department. “This is not the time to panic; now is the time for all of us to work together.”

The Alameda County case is one of several new cases reported over the weekend in Santa Clara and Solano counties. The new Solano County case is also a health care worker at the Vacaville hospital. Down in Santa Clara County, two of the new patients had recently traveled to Egypt, and how the third was exposed is unknown. All three are hospitalized.

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department will be doing "community surveillance" to determine the extent of possible disease spread in the community.

>>8,400 People Being Monitored For Coronavirus In CA: Gov. Newsom

On Monday, the death toll in Washington state rose to six, where the virus appears to have been circulating in the community for about six weeks, according Trevor Bedford, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

California, Oregon and Washington all have confirmed cases of COVID-19 in patients who caught the illness the the community.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

The disease, which apparently originated in animals, is now transferring from person to person, although the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Its symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and many patients develop pneumonia. There is as yet no vaccine against COVID-19 it and no antiviral treatment.

According to the CDC, the best way of preventing the disease is to avoid close contact with people who are sick, to avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, to wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and to use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.

To avoid spreading any respiratory illness, the CDC recommends staying at home when you are sick, covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and throwing the tissue in the trash, cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.

— Patch editor Bea Karnes and Bay City News contributed to this story

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