Newly diagnosed coronavirus patient being treated at UC Davis Medical Center

Davis Enterprise ^ | 2-26-20 | Anne Ternus-Bellamy

[DouglasKC]

The UC Davis Medical Center is treating a patient who may be the first person in the country to have contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) from community exposure.

The California Department of Public Health reported Wednesday the individual is a resident of Solano County who had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual.

An email sent out Wednesday by two UC Davis officials said the patient arrived at the medical center in Sacramento last Wednesday but was only tested for the virus on Sunday despite a request made by med center officials that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct a test when the patient was admitted.

“Today the CDC confirmed the patient’s test was positive,” said the email from David Lubarsky, vice-chancellor of human health services, and Brad Simmons, interim CEO of UC Davis Medical Center.

“This is not the first COVID-19 patient we have treated, and because of the precautions we have had in place since this patient’s arrival, we believe there has been minimal potential for exposure here at UC Davis Medical Center,” the email said.

Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures.

Lubarsky and Simmons said the patient was transferred to UC Davis from “another Northern California hospital” on Wednesday, Feb 19.

“When the patient arrived, the patient had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” the email said.

“Since the patient arrived with a suspected viral infection, our care teams have been taking the proper infection prevention precautions during the patient’s stay.

“Upon admission, our team asked public health officials if this case could be COVID-19. We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor (the California Department of Public Health) is doing testing for coronavirus at this time. Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered,” said the email, which added that, “UC Davis Health does not control the testing process.”

On Sunday, the CDC ordered COVID-19 testing of the patient and the patient was put on airborne precautions and strict contact precautions. The positive test results were announced on Wednesday.

“We are proud of our health care workers who have been working to care for this patient and are committed to saving this patient’s life,” the email said.

“Just as when a health care worker has a small chance of exposure to other illnesses, such as TB or pertussis, we are following standard CDC protocols for determination of exposure and surveillance. So, out of an abundance of caution, in order to assure the health and safety of our employees, we are asking a small number of employees to stay home and monitor their temperature.

“We are handling this in the same way we manage other diseases that require airborne precautions and monitoring. We are in constant communication with the state health department and the CDC and Sacramento County Public Health about the optimal management of this patient and possible employee exposures,” the email said.

“As we regularly handle patients with infectious diseases, we have robust infection control protocols in place to handle this patient and others with more frequently seen infectious diseases. In this case, we are dedicated to providing the best care possible for this patient and continuing to protect the health of our employees who care for them.”

The CDC announced on Wednesday that a case of novel coronavirus of “unknown origin” — without a relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient — had been diagnosed in a patient in Northern California but did not indicate what city or county the case was in.

In a press released issued Wednesday evening, the state Department of Public Health revealed the individual was from Solano County.

“The health risk from novel coronavirus to the general public remains low at this time,” the release said. “While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate. From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80 percent do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization. There have been no confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States to date. California is carefully assessing the situation as it evolves.”

“Keeping Californians safe and healthy is our number one priority,” said State Public Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell.

“This has been an evolving situation, which California has been monitoring and responding to since COVID-19 cases first emerged in China last year. This is a new virus, and while we are still learning about it, there is a lot we already know.

“We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California. That’s why California has been working closely with federal and local partners, including health care providers and hospitals, since the outbreak was first reported in China — and we are already responding.”

This would be the first known instance of person-to-person transmission in the general public in the United States, according to Angell.

Previously known instances of person-to-person transmission in the United States include one instance in Chicago, Ill., and one in San Benito County. Both cases were after close, prolonged interaction with a family member who returned from Wuhan, China, and had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus. As of Wednesday, including this case, California has had seven travel-related cases, one close contact case and now one community transmission.

[Beowulf9]

Bird flu y2k sars..been there done that.

[DouglasKC]

Some say it can take 30 days to become infected, some say 14 days, the numbers game is everywhere

Yah they're all over the map...

[nopardons]

I said that nobody would know the answer; I was just musing on it.

I really hope that the CDC WILL try to find out!

[ALASKA]

I noticed. Well done. The thing about this one is, we know very little about the virus and its ravages. I don’t trust anything coming out of China. There are good reasons to believe the numbers actually to be multiples of those being released. There are reports of survivors testing positive again. This one is weird. I think Trump’s talk today was him giving a fairly strong picture of what it may be like while denying it as a concern. If so, that buys time until we start quarantining cities. I’m withholding judgment for a while.

[DouglasKC]

There are only around 65,000 ventilators in the US. That number is far too small if a major epidemic occurs. This doesn’t even count the lack of trained RNs and PAs who know how to treat critically ill patients. You will also need thousands of respiratory therapists to do the day to day therapy for those on ventilators.

Yah could get scary fast. According to https://www.aha.org/statistics/fast-facts-us-hospitals there are only 924,107 staffed hospital beds in the US. If this infects 60,000,000 a year (like a typical flu season) and 20% require hospitalization (which seems to be the average so far) then that's 12 MILLION people needing hospital beds. If it only infects 30 million then that's 6 MILLION beds. If it only infects 15 million then that's 3 Million beds.

There's not enough beds if it infects less then the flu infects and it's MORE infectious than the flu.

[Williams]

Good luck controlling illegal immigrant exposures in a sanctuary city or state.

[Moonman62]

If the patient is intubated, the patient is very sick.

...

True. It’s also more difficult to do contact tracing, which may be why the origin is unknown.

[ALASKA]

I noticed. Well done. The thing about this one is, we know very little about the virus and its ravages. I don’t trust anything coming out of China. There are good reasons to believe the numbers actually to be multiples of those being released. There are reports of survivors testing positive again. This one is weird. I think Trump’s talk today was him giving a fairly strong picture of what it may be like while denying it as a concern. If so, that buys time until we start quarantining cities. I’m withholding judgment for a while.

[EinNYC]

It begins.

Cue the Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-dum-dum-dum music.

[DouglasKC]

I noticed. Well done. The thing about this one is, we know very little about the virus and its ravages. I don’t trust anything coming out of China. There are good reasons to believe the numbers actually to be multiples of those being released. There are reports of survivors testing positive again. This one is weird. I think Trump’s talk today was him giving a fairly strong picture of what it may be like while denying it as a concern. If so, that buys time until we start quarantining cities. I’m withholding judgment for a while.

I think President Trump was very sober but very effective. I think they told him there's not much hope of stopping it from getting here or that it's already here. But he did a great job making sure that whatever happens the government is ready. He said basically that no matter what happens it will pass. We will get over it.

[nopardons]

No kidding!

[Moonman62]

The mean incubation period is 5 to 6 days and the professionals are still using a 14 day quarantine period.

[Autonomous User]

The California Department of Public Health reported Wednesday the individual is a resident of Solano County who had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual.

BS. There is a Chinamman in the woodpile somewhere. Count on it.

[sauropod]

.

[DouglasKC]

Bump...lot of good info here...

[JohnBovenmyer]

As was stated at Trump's press conference, for the moment our only defenses are general public health measures. Common sense personal hygiene, isolation when there is suspicion of risk and contact tracing. Not ideal, but NOT worthless.

California should recall the best example of not doing that, the initial public health non-response to HIV! I doubt anything Trump et al propose for this will receive nearly as loud a negative reaction as were proposals to apply standard public health measures to that population of interest. And I'm delighted to have heard one of the early true experts say he was wrong back then and admit a standard public health, rather than their radically PC, response could have saved a lot of lives. So far no one on the looney left has awarded this virus civil rights. Should they try to invent some, it should be stressed that Trump will want to treat their exposed precious homeless ethnic inventively pronouned druggies just the same as Trump treated all those exposed rich cruise ship passengers and world travelers.

Public heath measures can win us valuable time, during which treatments might be found. Some of the most promising treatments are already known to be safe so could be available quickly if we can prove they work. Randomized trials have already started. If Trump gets COVID-19 drugs out before the election TDS will clearly be the worse disease. They'll still try to hit him over Chinese supply train disruptions, but PDT already started treatment for that with his trade policies bringing more manufacturing back home.

[null and void]

the patient arrived at the medical center in Sacramento last Wednesday but was only tested for the virus on Sunday despite a request made by med center officials that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct a test when the patient was admitted.

“Today the CDC confirmed the patient’s test was positive,”

*sigh*

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[crz]

Here is how you combat it. Eat beans, lots of beans and pickled eggs. Top it all off with onions.

That’ll clear the air.

[DouglasKC]

As was stated at Trump's press conference, for the moment our only defenses are general public health measures. Common sense personal hygiene, isolation when there is suspicion of risk and contact tracing. Not ideal, but NOT worthless.

Yeah that's all true but it's the only way. Keep hand sanitizer everywhere.

[FreeReign]

“This is not the first COVID-19 patient we have treated...".

Wait, what?

Did the patient enter the hospital with the Flu and then catch Covid-19 in the hospital?