Sacramento health chief warns of more coronavirus cases to come, mayor urges calm

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Sacramento County’s chief health official on Thursday warned local residents to expect more cases of coronavirus to occur locally in the next few days, but cautioned the public not to be alarmed.

“Bottom line this is going to spread, and there’s no way around that,” County Health Services Director Peter Beilenson said. “We will see more cases.”

While the illness can be fatal, most instances are, in fact, mild, he said. He recommended the public take safety precautions similar to a significant outbreak of the flu.

“The actions you can take to prevent the spread are very similar, washing your hands regularly, using alcohol wipes. … If you’re sick, or your kid is sick, stay home or stay home from school and try to avoid areas where there are a lot of sick people like in emergency departments.”

People with the virus may not have any symptoms, but can still be contagious, he said.

Beilenson made his comments after reports Wednesday that the UC Davis Medical Center has treated at least two patients with novel coronavirus — with one of those patients being the first case in the United States that isn’t tied to recent travel through China. “A few dozen” staff members at UC Davis Medical Center exposed to that infected patient have been tested for the virus and are now staying home and monitoring temperatures waiting for results, Beilenson said.

Medical Center officials declined to say how many coronavirus patients they have seen since the coronavirus first surfaced in Northern California at the end of January. A handful of people suspected of having the virus where released in recent weeks from quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, and were reportedly treated at Northern California hospitals.

The news has prompted alarm bells locally and nationally. Retailers report a run on protective face masks as federal health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned communities to prepare for further outbreaks. Local school districts, including Sacramento City Unified School District, have been informing parents to take precautions by following federal Centers for Disease Control recommendations.

Sacramento health officials and leaders, as well as California Governor Gavin Newsom, however, on Thursday said they believe Californians’ risk of contracting COVID-19 remains extremely low. Newsom said the state is not planning to make an emergency declaration.

“Right now, I don’t think it’s necessary,” Newsom said.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg on Thursday morning urged Sacramento-area residents to remain calm. Steinberg said he has spoken with UC Davis Medical Center officials and county health officials and is confident health officials are taking proper steps.

“We are on this,” he told The Bee. “I am confident that the county and our health officials are on top of this. My message is we are all taking this very seriously, but we should not panic.

“Eighty percent of the cases involve mild symptoms to no symptoms at all. Yes, people have died, mostly people who were in fragile condition. Like the flu, we have to use this moment to continue to advocate and educate people to take precautions - to stay home if you are not feeling well.

“We have to have a concerted response, but no panic. These are top-notch professionals who deal with all kinds of difficult situations. We are going to work hard and keep calm.”

First case of unknown origin

The Sacramento hospital made national news Wednesday after local and federal health officials announced the Davis facility on Stockton Boulevard was treating the first U.S. case of COVID-19 from an unknown origin being treated at the Sacramento facility.

In a memo issued Wednesday night, UC Davis Medical Center officials confirmed they are treating an intubated patient who was transported to the Sacramento facility a week ago from a Solano County hospital. After arriving at UC Davis Medical Center, the CDC tested the patient — who had not traveled to China recently or had close contact with someone infected — and confirmed she had the virus.

Sacramento County health official Beilenson said even before the diagnosis, the patient was already under an infection-prevention status, meaning Davis staff members took protective measures to reduce exposure to the virus.

A few dozen staff members at UC Davis Medical Center who had contact with the patient from Solano County have since been quarantined, though Beilenson said the hospital “over-represented the number of people that need to be quarantined.” Swab samples from quarantined individuals have been sent to the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, and results should return within three days, he said.

“They don’t want to have a case where someone who is asymptomatic spreads it to six people who are already sick and have a respiratory issue,” Beilenson said. “Those are the last people you want to spread it to.”

The news has alarmed people some hospital patients. Elizabeth Skerl traveled to Sacramento from Riverside to drop her mom and sister off at the hospital, unaware of the facility’s place in the spotlight.

“I’m concerned with how they’re handling it,” she said, standing outside the hospital Thursday morning with two children, Leah and Caleb, in a stroller. “I’m not a medical expert or nurse or anything. ... Any kind of new sickness is always scary when you have kids.”

County health chief Beilenson said almost all the newly reported coronavirus cases in the United States will be part of a community-based spread, not related to travel from China. He said he believes people will continue to get the illness in years to come. “(It) will very likely turn into a similar situation of the flu where this becomes a normal part of the infectious disease system in the world.”

“In the 25 to 35 years I’ve been doing this,” he said, “every few years there’s a new virus that comes to the attention of the world and in almost all circumstances it eventually becomes just part of the general constellation of infectious diseases.”

‘Taking normal precautions’

Dr. David Lubarsky, the head of the hospital and UC Davis Health’s vice chancellor of human health services, and Brad Simmons, the health system’s interim CEO, said in Wednesday’s memo that the hospital is taking normal precautions, including sending an undisclosed number of employees home after they had worked with the patient.

“Today we learned a patient we are treating here at UC Davis Medical Center for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is being investigated by the CDC as possibly the first patient to have received the infection from exposure in the community,” the leaders wrote.

Lubarsky and Simmons’s note to workers continued: “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.

“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.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 12:46 PM.