Coronavirus outbreak: 2 patients at UCSF; SF mayor says Lunar New Year parade will go on

ByKate Larsen KGO logo

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

UCSF caring for 2 patients with coronavirus

UCSF Health has announced it is treating two people for novel coronavirus. The cases were previously reported in San Benito County, health officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Multiple nurses and employees at the UCSF Parnassus campus said they received an email Monday that said two patients with coronavirus were transferred to the hospital for treatment.

UCSF officials have not confirmed where in their system the patients are being treated, but they did release a statement saying, "The patients are being cared for in isolation at UCSF Health."

The statement also says that precautions are being taken to screen any individuals that have traveled from China and to prevent the spread of the virus.

UCSF Health has received two patients with confirmed novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), who were transferred to the hospital from another county in California today, Monday, Feb. 3. The patients are being cared for in isolation at UCSF Health. UCSF, which specializes in the care of patients with complex illnesses, including infectious diseases like the novel coronavirus, also treated patients during past epidemics, such as SARS in 2003. In addition to our standard infectious disease protocols, we have instituted a number of measures to screen patients with potential 2019-nCoV, as well as prevent the coronavirus' spread. UCSF Health is screening patients to ensure that we are taking all precautions for any individuals that have traveled from China.

Health officials said two patients arrived at UCSF Monday morning from San Benito County, which is near Gilroy.

The husband recently traveled to Wuhan, came home, and developed symptoms the next day.

His wife now also has coronavirus, leading health officials to say it was a person-to-person transmission. Both are 57 years old.

"They would be in isolation and making sure the proper procedures are being followed, protective equipment and so forth," said Dr. Grant Colfax, the Director of San Francisco's Department of Public Health.

Dr. Colfax does not want the community to overreact, particularly because there have been no coronavirus cases diagnosed in San Francisco.

"We are working with the department of emergency management, we have activated our medical response team. We have done this before," said Dr. Colfax. "We had SARS, we had H1N1, we had preparation for Ebola. So these are classic public health principles, this is nothing new for clinicians and our responders in the health department."

Dr. Colfax attended a Lunar New Year celebration at City Hall with local officials, members of the Asian American community, and Mayor London Breed.

"We don't want people to be out there afraid," said Mayor Breed.

The Mayor says she plans to attend this Saturday's big Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown, and that right now, nothing has been canceled because of coronavirus concerns.

"If there was anything different, we wouldn't move forward with events that might jeopardize public health or public safety in any way," said Mayor Breed.

On Sunday, a second case of coronavirus was confirmed in Santa Clara County. It is unrelated to the first case, which was announced last Friday, although both patients traveled to Wuhan recently. The first case is a man, and the second case is a woman. Each person is self-isolating at home.

You can visit CDC's website to keep updated with the latest information on coronavirus.

See more stories related to coronavirus here.

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