Health & Fitness
Coronavirus: Riverside County Responds To SoCal, National Cases
As of Monday morning, there are five confirmed U.S. cases of the illness, including one each in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Local health officials are monitoring the spread of coronavirus (nCoV) from the Wuhan, China outbreak but as of Monday morning there are no confirmed cases in Riverside County, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser.
Sunday the Centers for Disease Control announced a total of five confirmed cases of the illness in the United States. In addition to the two cases announced last week in Washington State and Illinois, three others were reported over the weekend in Arizona, Los Angeles County, and Orange County.
In all the U.S. cases to date, the patients had recently returned to the country from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of the potentially deadly coronavirus has been ongoing since December.
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There is nothing to indicate any of the five infected patients could have spread the illness to Riverside County, according to Kaiser.
“It’s understandable Riverside County residents would be anxious with all the media reports about the growing number of cases, but I want the community to know everything is being done to prevent the illness from spreading here,” Kaiser said. “At this time we have no evidence these individuals had contacts in Riverside County during the period they would be contagious.”
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Kaiser said the incubation period for nCoV and other related coronaviruses seems to be around two weeks. Even though travel from Wuhan has been closed by the Chinese government, it seems likely there will be additional cases detected in California, health officials warn.
“As nCoV has substantial similarities to the SARS virus from 2002, which is also a coronavirus, we are treating it with similar urgency,” Kaiser said.
Kaiser said the Department of Public Health will be coordinating with schools, hospitals and the emergency medical system to ensure a uniform and fast response if a case is identified in Riverside County.
“We will be ready if we get one,” he said.
For more on coronavirus, visit https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
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