Coronavirus Emergency Declared In Orange County

NEWPORT BEACH, CA —Orange County Supervisors and health officials gathered in a press conference Wednesday to declare the coronavirus a local emergency. Following the CDC's announcement Wednesday that the virus was "inevitable," OC supervisors Michelle Steel and Andrew Do said the county is taking measures to prevent a local outbreak.

"We will do whatever we can to keep Orange County novel-coronavirus free," Supervisor Michelle Steel said.

The emergency declaration comes amid a legal battle between the county and federal officials looking to house coronavirus patients, infected on-board a cruise ship, at a shuttered healthcare facility in Costa Mesa. Though there are is no current threat of a local outbreak, county officials said it's time to prepare for the possibility that a global pandemic could reach the region.

"Our declaration, signed by Dr. Nichole Quick of the OC Healthcare Agency, is about preparedness," said Vice-Chair Andrew Do. "Still, we must be prepared and craft our response if it becomes necessary."

Steel and Do both said the county needs to review all strategies to keep the risks of the virus arriving and spreading in Orange County to a minimum. Keeping the infected patients of the Diamond Princess cruise ship away from Costa Mesa would be a good start, they said.

The head of Orange County Healthcare Agency spoke at length on the current state of the virus and methods for maintaining personal health during viral outbreaks such as the flu season.

"Cover coughs and sneezes, wash your hands, and stay home when you are sick," Quick said. The coronavirus is new, "rapidly evolving," and researchers are learning more about it each day, according to Quick.

The new virus notwithstanding, flu remains is a real risk this time of year.

There is still much about the coronavirus that remains unknown, including the exact incubation period and how it is transmitted person to person.

According to Dr. Quick, the incubation period of the virus is changing.

"When we look at the quarantined patients, the CDC is reporting zero to 14 days," she said.

With the new local emergency comes a more flexible and rapid response for Orange County health officials. Residents who go to the hospital with flu-like symptoms will now be tested for coronavirus along with the flu, according to Quick.

The declaration of the local health emergency "expands our ability to respond in a flexible and nimble way," Quick said. "If we exhaust our resources, the emergency declaration enables us to ask for aid more rapidly."

Her mantra during the press conference remained on point: avoid touching your eyes and your face, wash your hands regularly, and stay home when you're sick.

Do said that both Quick and Richard Sanchez, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, should be given every chance to succeed.

Moving patients from the cruise ship to Costa Mesa would have destroyed that process, according to Do.

By setting an operational plan that would provide for all contingencies, according to Do. Before any decision is made, we need to consider a plan in place to ensure the safety of residents, he said, adding, "we have not seen any of that.

An amicus brief filed yesterday by the board of supervisors shows that they do not believe that transporting individuals who are sick with the virus to Orange County does nothing to protect the citizens.

"Orange County has 3.2 million residents in a small geographic area," Do said. "The supervisors and healthcare staff will do whatever they can to reduce the risk of the virus coming to our borders."

"At a minimum, the decision to move people to Orange County was hastily done and politically driven," Do said. "The passengers infected from the cruise ship has risen to 42 out of 50. What do you do when the situation becomes even worse?"

Officials believe patients bound for Costa Mesa are those evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had been under quarantine while docked in Japan.

Costa Mesa officials contend they received little notification of the planned move, and questioned the suitability of the location, noting that state officials had previously questioned its viability as a temporary housing facility for the homeless.

Attorneys for the federal government contended that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials had inspected the site and determined it was suitable. They also said the government planned to use the facility to house ten people who have tested positive for the virus but have not yet shown any symptoms.

San Diego County officials declared a local emergency in response to the coronavirus on Feb. 14. Officials there stressed that the declaration was not an indication of a higher risk of contracting the virus locally, only an effort to ensure the county has a response in place should an outbreak occur.

The San Diego County declaration came while hundreds of people evacuated from Wuhan, China — the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak —were under quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Those evacuees have since cleared quarantine and are released. Two of those people were diagnosed with the virus, but they were treated and eventually released.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency on Tuesday. There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus —known as COVID-19 — in that city.

Worldwide, more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, including 2,770 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. More than 50 cases have been confirmed in the United States.

"At the end of the day, we are the ones responsible for the health of our residents," Do said. "We are on the front line."

Read also:

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City News Service contributed to this report.