Orange County officials to declare local emergency in response to coronavirus
Following in the footsteps of San Diego County and the city of San Francisco, Orange County officials today will declare a local health emergency in response to the coronavirus.
Michelle Steel, chair of the County Board of Supervisors, and board Vice Chair Andrew Do plan to announce the declaration at an early afternoon news conference. Nichole Quick, county health officer, and Richard Sanchez, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, are also expected to attend.
There has only been one confirmed case of the virus in Orange County. San Diego County officials declared a local emergency in response to the coronavirus on Feb. 14. Officials there stressed that the declaration was not an indication of a greater risk of contracting the virus locally, only an effort to ensure the county was prepared to respond should an outbreak occur.
The San Diego County declaration came while hundreds of people who had been evacuated from Wuhan, China -- the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak -- were under quarantine at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Those evacuees have since cleared quarantine and have been released. Two of those people were diagnosed with the virus, but they were treated and eventually released.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a local emergency on Tuesday. There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus -- known as COVID-19
-- in that city.
Worldwide, more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, including 2,770 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. More than 50 cases have been confirmed in the United States.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to join Costa Mesa in a federal lawsuit seeking to block COVID-19 patients from being housed at the former Fairview Developmental Center. Costa Mesa filed the suit late last week, and a judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the federal government and state from moving any patients to the facility. That order will remain in place until next Monday, when another court hearing will be held.
Costa Mesa officials contend they received little notification of the planned move, and questioned the suitability of the location, noting that state officials had previously questioned its viability as a temporary housing facility for the homeless.
Attorneys for the federal government contended that U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials had inspected the site and determined it was suitable. They also said the government planned to use the facility to house 10 people who have tested positive for the virus but have not yet shown any symptoms.
The patients are believed to be among those who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had been under quarantine while docked in Japan.
One of those passengers who tested positive is a Riverside County resident.
"We don't believe this person was in Riverside County after they left the cruise ship," said Dr. Cameron Kaiser, a public health officer for Riverside County. "Also we don't believe there are any other contacts in the county."
Dr. Kaiser said the resident is being treated in Northern California and is expected to recover.
"I spoke with the health department up there. We want to make sure that they don't get back to their home until there is no longer a communicability risk," Dr. Kaiser said.
More on the County resident and an expert discussion on the myths of the coronavirus
There are currently no reported cases of coronavirus in Riverside County. Dr. Kaiser said the local risk of coronavirus in the county is low, however, the flu is another big issue.
"The risk of the flu is still currently higher than COVID-19," said Dr. Adrian Cotton with Loma Linda University Health. "There’s been a lot more hospitalizations, illnesses, deaths."
Watch: What to look out for when it comes to the flu versus the coronavirus
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