Livermore Lab Worker Had Symptoms Of Coronavirus After Exposure

LIVERMORE, CA — A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employee who reported experiencing symptoms similar to the new coronavirus will stay home for two weeks after learning they were exposed to a person who was sickened by the virus. No other workers have reported symptoms, said LLNL spokesperson Lynda Seaver.

The employee and 25 other people who came in contact with that employee will stay home and self-monitor for 14 days, she said.

The affected employee learned they had been exposed to someone with coronavirus on Wednesday night and contacted the lab. The building the employee works in was disinfected Thursday and all employees stayed home, Seaver said. The rest of the workers in the building will return to work Monday.

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The employee experiencing symptoms has been in communication with a health care professional, but Seaver said she did not know whether the person has been tested for coronavirus.

LLNL has informed employees of precautions they can take to avoid getting ill, and has taken additional precautions to limit visitors and employee travel in and out of the facility, she said.

Should the virus spread, employees could work from home, Seaver said.

On Thursday a class at Valley View Elementary School in Pleasanton was temporarily moved after the school learned a student's parent was exposed to a presumptive positive coronavirus patient, Pleasanton Unified School District said. The student and their family will self-quarantine for 14 days. Rooms were disinfected as a precaution.

California Braces For Potential Impact

Alameda County said Tuesday that a health care worker who lives in the county but worked at a Vacaville hospital was presumed to have contracted coronavirus, pending confirmation testing. That person remains at home, in isolation. On Sunday the county 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."

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday to provide additional resources, prevent price gouging and help the state better prepare for the virus’s spread.

The emergency declaration followed the first known coronavirus-related death in California — an elderly Placer County resident who was exposed to the virus on a Grand Princess cruise Feb. 11-21 from San Francisco to Mexico and back.

The governor said Wednesday that about 9,400 people statewide are being monitored and 53 were confirmed to have coronavirus.

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. Ninety-nine cases have been reported across 13 states, with 10 U.S. deaths confirmed, according to a Thursday CDC update.

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.

Read more about the coronavirus outbreak here on the CDC website.

— Bay City News Service and Patch editors Bea Karnes and Maggie Fusek contributed to this report

See more:

• State Of Emergency Declared In CA Amid COVID-19 Death, Outbreak
• Student's Family Member Possibly Exposed To Coronavirus: PUSD