Coronavirus in NJ?: Patient at Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel tests negative

HOLMDEL – A patient with a suspected infection of the novel coronavirus has tested negative at Bayshore Medical Center for the disease.

The state Health Department’s laboratory, which became capable of conducting the tests on Friday, completed the analysis in 24 hours. Hospital staff alerted health authorities on the same day that a patient with a suspected case of COVID-19 — as the virus is known — had been identified at the hospital on Friday.

A spokeswoman for Hackensack Meridian Health said Sunday morning that the patient "was improving."

“Most New Jersey residents are at low risk for novel coronavirus,” state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said in a prepared statement Saturday night. “If individuals are having symptoms, the illness is much more likely to be caused by common respiratory viruses such as flu or the common cold.”

Coronavirus in NJ: Patient at Bayshore Medical Center does not have it

The statement said there are no other patients in New Jersey who are currently approved and awaiting testing for the virus that causes COVID-19.

In the case in Holmdel, it was not known whether the patient had a history of travel to the countries where the disease is spreading rapidly or had had contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19. New Jersey had 195 people under self-quarantine as of Thursday; the number in Monmouth and Ocean counties was unavailable Saturday.

The first person to die of the disease in the United States, a man in his 50s with serious underlying health conditions, was reported Saturday by the federal Centers for Disease Control. He died at a hospital in Kirkland, Washington, just a day after his infection was confirmed.

The CDC broadened the criteria to test for the disease on Thursday, after a California woman became the first case in the United States where no potential source of the infection could be identified. Hospitalized patients with severe, acute respiratory symptoms and fever can now be tested at the clinician’s discretion, even without a travel history to affected areas or close contact with a sick patient.

“We continue to screen patients with appropriate symptoms for travel history to China, Italy, Iran, Japan, and South Korea,” said Dr. Daniel M. Varga, chief physician executive for Hackensack Meridian Health, Bayshore’s parent health system, on Saturday. “Symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath.”

The hospital notified its clinical staff of the patient’s suspected diagnosis and the precautions being taken in an email overnight Friday into Saturday from Dr. Jerry Zuckeman, vice president for infection and prevention at the health system.

Coronavirus in NJ: What we know so far about patient at Bayshore

Patients with suspected COVID-19 are hospitalized in negative pressure rooms, so that the air does not circulate elsewhere until it has been filtered and sterilized.

Other precautions include the use of personal protective equipment — including gowns, gloves, face masks and eye protection — by any staff who enter patient areas, restrictions on visitors, and separate disposal of all the materials used to treat the patient.

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“The hospital has taken all necessary precautions and is following infectious disease protocol," the state Health Department said in a statement Saturday. Bayshore, in Monmouth County, is licensed for 211 beds, including 26 in the intensive care unit.

Hospitals have been preparing for the arrival of the coronavirus for several weeks. Frontline workers have been trained to “identify, isolate and assess” anyone suspected of having the virus, Varga said Friday.

Coronavirus is believed to spread through respiratory droplets from coughs and sneezes, although some people without symptoms have been reported to have spread the virus.

Gov. Phil Murphy spoke Friday night with Vice President Mike Pence, who was named Wednesday to chair the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force. In a readout of the call, the governor’s office said Pence reiterated that the administration of President Donald Trump "stands ready to support New Jersey’s efforts in this fight.”

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The CDC last week was sending new test kits to all 50 states to increase testing capacity, after problems had delayed their use earlier in February. In addition, Hackensack Meridian researchers said Friday that they were close to having a rapid test to screen for the virus, but needed live virus samples from the CDC to validate it before widespread use.

Monmouth County officials said they had been monitoring the situation and were in constant communication with health officials regarding the patient with the suspected case.

Over the past several weeks, at least 22 residents of Monmouth and Ocean counties had been quarantined at their homes, following their return from places where there have been outbreaks of COVID-19, according to authorities.

The measures have been strictly precautionary, as no one in quarantine — in either county — had shown symptoms of the disease, and most were out of quarantine as of Wednesday.

The virus originated in China, where it has killed 2,800 people, and it has infected at least 84,000 people worldwide, stoking fears of a possible global pandemic in the weeks to come.

On Friday, health officials in California confirmed that the second known case of unexplained coronavirus — in which a person emerges with the infection with no obvious indication of how the virus was transmitted — in the United States had been reported in the San Jose area.

The patient was described as an older adult woman with chronic health conditions who has no known travel history or any known contact with a traveler or infected person. It comes two days after state officials there said a woman in Solano County had contracted the illness after no known contact.

On Saturday, the CDC reported the first infection in a health care worker in the United States and an outbreak at a long-term care facility. The health care worker, a woman in her 40s, is hospitalized in satisfactory condition. She works at the long-term care facility in Kirkland, Washington, where a woman in her 70s also has been diagnosed and hospitalized in serious condition, according to public health officials there.

Twenty-seven residents at the nursing home and 25 staff members have reported some symptoms, and “we would not be surprised to find additional cases,” said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, the public health officer for Seattle-King County.

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