Second ‘unknown origin’ case of coronavirus is confirmed in California 90 miles from first case

The second ‘unknown origin’ case of coronavirus to hit the US has been confirmed in California.

A 65-year-old woman from Santa Clara County has tested positive for the disease, health officials confirmed Friday.

The unnamed woman had not recently returned from a foreign country, and had not been in contact with another confirmed case.

This latest instance of possible community spread of the deadly disease comes hot on the heels of the first case – about 90 miles away in Solano County – and suggests that the likelihood of the disease spreading locally in the US is ramping up. 

Questions are likely to be raised over the CDC’s handling of the second case and whether, like the first case, medical staff were put at risk while treating the individual as they lay untested for several days.

The County of Santa Clara Public Health Department confirmed in a statement that the older adult woman tested positive for coronavirus Thursday night. 

The statement said the woman, who has chronic health conditions, had initially been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties.

‘The individual is an older adult woman with chronic health conditions who was hospitalized for a respiratory illness. Her infectious disease physician contacted the Public Health Department to discuss the case and request testing for the novel coronavirus,’ the statement said. 

‘The County of Santa Clara Public Health Laboratory received the specimens yesterday and performed the testing. Since receiving the results last night, the department has been working to identify contacts and understand the extent of exposures.’ 

Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer for Santa Clara County and Director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department warned that the case was ‘evidence of community transmission’ and said health officials now need to change their response. 

Cody gave a press conference Thursday night confirming the new case and said that, while the county had two other confirmed cases in Santa Clara, this one is more concerning as the origin of the infection cannot be traced.

The case is ‘different to our other two cases in an important way’, she said.

‘Like the California case reported two days ago, our third case did not recently travel overseas or have any known contact with a recent traveler or an infected person,’ she said.  

Cody said the adult woman had been hospitalized with respiratory issues and her physician called the public health department Wednesday night to discuss the case and to get the patient tested.

The specimen was received the next morning – Thursday – for testing and the results came back that night. 

Cody said health officials are working to identify the woman’s contacts and identify anyone she came into contact with who now may be at risk.

The speed and efficiency of the testing in this case comes off the back of criticism over the handling of the first unknown origin case.  

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the first case of community transmission in the US on Wednesday in a woman in Solano County, near Sacramento. 

The unnamed woman had not recently traveled to China, and none of her immediate family or close contacts had the virus or were suspected of having it. 

She is being treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where tests for the virus came back positive Wednesday. 

However, fears are mounting that the infection was not contained quickly enough and more lives could be at risk after doctors revealed that the CDC failed to test the patient for coronavirus for four days despite the requests of local medical staff.

It has now emerged that as many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California woman before she tested positive and was quarantined. 

The second case suggests the virus is now spreading among at least two separate populations. 

It is not yet known if the two cases are connected in any way but they are located just 90 miles apart in Solano County and Santa Clara County, California.   

If continued contact tracing doesn’t turn up a source of the virus in these two cases, it will indicate that the infection is spreading in US communities, independent of travel history. 

In that case, health officials will need to shift tactics and start testing people with no recent history of travel to China or close contacts with such a history for coronavirus – but experts have warned that the US does not have nearly enough tests to do so.   

Up to ONE HUNDRED health workers were exposed to the first ‘unknown origin’ coronavirus patient who took four DAYS to diagnose – as it’s revealed she came into contact with three students who are now in self-quarantine 

As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California woman who went four days untested for coronavirus, before being confirmed as the first unknown origin case in the US. 

The doctors and nurses are from the University of California Davis Medical Center, where the woman is being treated, and from NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.

”There were multiple health care personnel who were exposed to the individual,’ Dr Bela Matyas, public health officer from Solano County, said at a news conference on Thursday. 

‘At both hospitals we are at present aggressively evaluating everyone who may have had contact with this patient. They are being identified and their risk for exposure is being assessed.’ 

Some are under isolation, some are under quarantine and others have been sent home to continuously monitor their status. 

As for the patient, she is reportedly in very serious condition and is currently intubated, Rep John Garamendi (D-CA) told CNN.

Doctors requested a test for the virus, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ruled out the disease because the patient ‘did not fit the…criteria’ for testing. 

However, after the woman’s medical team persisted, a test was finally performed on Sunday.  

In addition to healthcare workers, there are fears the California patient may have come into contact with three students at three colleges in Northern California.

According to emails sent to students on both campuses, the students – who attend American River College and Cosumnes River College and Sacramento City College – were exposed last week, reported KTXL.

All three students have been told to self-quarantine for two weeks and to contact health officials if they experience symptoms such as a cough or fever.   

Los Rios Community College District, where the schools are located, say that neither classes nor school operations will be canceled. 

The Sacramento County Public Health Department does not believe that either campus is at risk for exposure, according to KTXL.  

In addition, three students at UC Davis are being isolated and one is undergoing CDC testing for coronavirus.

University officials say the student undergoing testing has moved off campus while the other two, who are asymptomatic are isolated on campus. 

‘In Yolo County, in the city of Davis, on the campus of UC Davis, there is no evidence of spread of coronavirus, there is no evidence of transmission of coronavirus,’ Yolo County health officer Ron Chapman said. 

Coronavirus test kit shortages abound: California only has 200 sets of swabs and New York is making its OWN diagnostic as CDC admits ‘this has not gone as well as we hoped’ 

Coronavirus test kits are in short supply, were flawed when they were first distributed to labs across the US and abroad, and the results can take days for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to verify.

Even the CDC’s coronavirus point person, Dr Nancy Messonnier, admitted on Friday that the diagnostic has been a disappointment.

‘This has not gone as well as we hoped,’ she said during Friday press briefing.

California, where more than half of the nation’s coronavirus patients either live or are quarantined, has enough test kits to test just 200 patients, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday. 

If each of the six states with labs that can run the tests has the same number, only 1,200 people can be tested by technicians outside the CDC itself, although officials there have promised to have tests in every state’s health department by the end of next week.

That’s only 200 more than Hong Kong officials are testing each day. Meanwhile, only a total of 445 people in the US had been tested as of Friday.

Experts worry that there may be many more cases of coronavirus in the US than we are aware off, a concern that’s pushed New York to take matters into its own hands. The state’s health department is now making a test in an effort to speed screening.

However, news of two unknown origin cases means health officials will need to shift tactics and start testing people with no recent history of travel to China or close contacts with such a history for coronavirus – something that experts have warned there is not nearly enough tests to do so.

More test kits would mean faster diagnoses, earlier informed treatment and quicker contact tracing.

Officials in New York are trying to make that happen independent of the federal health organization.

Rather than wait for the CDC to send out more tests – and fix the faulty ones that New York has deemed unusable – the state and New York City are attempting to make their own, Buzzfeed News reported.

The Food and Drug Administration even gave the city and state its blessing to move forward with its own test development while the CDC is reformulating its diagnostic.

‘The only question is which will come on line first,’ New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Deputy Commissioner Demetre Daskalakis told Buzzfeed News.

New York Governor Cuomo has allocated $40 million the state’s response to coronavirus. There are no cases confirmed there so far, although 83 people in Nassau County are being monitored for the infection and one person in New York City has been tested.

‘The Governor is also calling on the federal government to authorize the Wadsworth Center and NYC Public Health Lab to test for the virus, allowing for expanded testing capacity and expedited test results’ said a press release from the governor’s office.

‘New York State has independently worked to develop and validate a test using the CDC protocol.

‘Upon FDA approval, Wadsworth can immediately begin testing to support New York State and other states in the northeast region if necessary.’

As of Friday, Georgia also formed its own coronavirus task force, despite the fact that none of handful of people it has tested have been positive for the infection.

A shortage of tests is just one of several federal foibles stoking fears of a worsening outbreak. HHS Secretary Azar also said Wednesday that the US not only has an insufficient stockpile of protective gear and face masks for health professionals, but currently lacks the manufacturing capacity to make them.