Bay Area health officials announced five new coronavirus cases Sunday, reinforcing warnings from the Centers for Disease Control that the outbreak may become a pandemic.
The diagnoses include two East Bay health care workers who probably have the virus, public health officials in Alameda and Solano counties said. The workers, employees at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, are considered “presumptive positives,” meaning local tests administered by the California Department of Public Health found they have the virus, officials said.
Officials said they’re awaiting test results from the CDC to make a positive diagnosis but that they’re treating the cases as if they’re positive. It’s the first reported case in Alameda County.
In Santa Clara County, officials with the Public Health Department identified three new cases Sunday, bringing the county’s total number to seven.
One case is an adult woman with chronic health conditions who is hospitalized, the county said in a statement. The other two are a husband and wife who recently traveled to Egypt. Both individuals are hospitalized, and the husband has chronic health issues.
The couple were exposed to someone who had the virus during their travels, a spokesman said. He did not specify where exactly the contact took place.
All three individuals sought medical help and displayed symptoms of the virus, the county said.
The announcements came on the same day that the country’s second fatality from the virus was reported in Washington state, and days after the CDC warned people of a possible pandemic of the coronavirus known as COVID-19.
Spokeswomen for the Alameda County Public Health Department and Solano Public Health declined to give details on the hospital employees Sunday but said they were exposed to an individual with the virus who is now hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
The patient — the first diagnosis in the U.S. of an individual who had neither traveled to Asia nor had known contact with travelers from abroad — was initially hospitalized at VacaValley before being transferred to Sacramento after symptoms worsened.
“Our two health care workers who tested positive have been in isolation at home since the day we learned they had contact with the patient who had contracted the virus,” said Aimee Brewer, president of NorthBay HealthCare Group.
“We took immediate and comprehensive measures intended to stop any further spread of the virus, including working with public health officials to trace the contacts the two workers may have had. We remain in close contact with national, state and local public health authorities to ensure we are following the most up-to-date protocols and procedures for dealing with this evolving situation.”
The hospital staff has identified all of the health care workers who came into contact with the patient at VacaValley. They remain in isolation, according to public health officials, who said there may be additional cases.
“It is important to remember that the patient did not meet the CDC’s criteria for COVID-19 testing nor the high-risk threshold for use of specific protective personal equipment by people providing care,” the counties said in a joint statement Sunday.
The workers — one is a Solano County resident, the other an Alameda County resident — are in isolation in their homes, health officials said. They declined to share details on how the workers came into contact with the patient but said the virus is contracted through close contact.
“The virus itself requires close contact for spread, so it’s not that they happened to be in the same building,” said Neetu Balram, spokeswoman for Alameda County Public Health. “It’s close contact.”
Alameda County declared a public health emergency Sunday after announcement of its first case.
Tatiana Sanchez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tatiana.sanchez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TatianaYSanchez
