Near the end of a press conference to discuss the emergence of the novel coronavirus in Washoe County, District Health Officer Kevin Dick offered the community one piece of advice: "Remain calm and wash your hands."

The advice followed almost 30 minutes of back-and-forth with reporters in which Dick refused to answer some basic questions about the community's potential exposure to the virus after a man in his 50s received a presumptive positive test for COVID-19.

The patient, who is in stable condition and quarantined at home, had been on the Grand Princess cruise ship from Feb. 11-21 — the same cruise as the man who died Wednesday in Placer County, Calif.

The Washoe County man had family at Huffaker Elementary School, which also has been experiencing a number of students with influenza-like symptoms.

During the press conference, Dick confirmed that Washoe County has "other residents" who were on the same Grand Princess cruise, including one of the students at Huffaker Elementary School.

But he was short with the details.

"How many of the man's family go to Huffaker?" a reporter asked.

"We are not going to be disclosing information that is not necessary to be distributed," Dick answered.

How many people connected to the cruise ship in Washoe? County won't say

Dick also would not say how many passengers from the ship are in the county or how many may have been at the school.

"We are not divulging information on people we are monitoring for COVID-19," Dick said, noting the state would report statewide totals once a week.

Dick also said he didn't have details on when the cruise ship passengers left the ship and how they traveled back to Washoe County.

The Grand Princess remained quarantined Friday off the coast of San Francisco as officials tested the passengers who may have been exposed to the virus. Health officials also were trying to track passengers who had debarked from the boat on Feb. 21 before it continued on to Hawaii.

In California, five patients connected to the cruise had tested positive as of Friday.

Confirmation of first COVID-19 case came after media report

Dick's vague answers at the press conference followed a similar lack of information on Thursday night, when the state lab reported the local man's presumptive positive test to the district and the state.

Health district personnel did not return phone calls seeking information for more than two hours after a Reno Gazette Journal reporter learned of the existence of the coronavirus case in the county. Washoe County Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler was the first to answer direct questions about the virus's emergence here.

Dick said Friday that the health district learned of the positive test results about 6 p.m. Thursday.

The health district put out a press release at 10 p.m., only after the Reno Gazette Journal ran its first story.

Meanwhile, the Washoe County School District sent a message to Huffaker Elementary School families at 9 p.m., chalking the school's closure up to students with symptoms of an "influenza-like illness" and making no mention of the school's connection to the COVID-19 case.

"We urged them to send out another (message)," health district spokesman Scott Oxarart said. "They waited until today (Friday)."

A scramble to test people affected

What is clear is that the health district and state lab are scrambling to deal with the one presumptive positive case, tracking who he has had contact with in the two weeks since he got off the cruise ship in San Francisco.

"We are identifying who may have been exposed and working with them in self-quarantine to see whether they develop symptoms and then work with them to have tests conducted," Dick said.

Dick said they are also working with individuals who were on the cruise ship. The district recommends anyone from the ship self-isolate for 14 days after they left the boat.

However, those passengers debarked from the ship on Feb. 21, meaning the 14-day window passed Friday.

Health officials weren't aware the coronavirus had spread on the ship until the death of the man in Placer County on Wednesday, Dick said.

The district is only testing people who exhibit symptoms.

As of Friday morning, the state's public health laboratory had tested samples from only 15 people.

"That's about to change," said Mark Pandori, the lab's director.

On Friday, the health district worked with families at Huffaker Elementary to identify students with symptoms or who had contact with the man's family to determine whether they need to be tested.

"We are working with the families and students from the school to collect samples for testing to determine if there is any COVID-19 associated with the influenza-like illness we are seeing at that school to see if we can rule out COVID-19 as a cause of illness there," Dick said.

Officials decided to not initially name COVID-19 as reason for school closure

After the presumptive positive test came in Thursday evening, officials with the health and school districts discussed the strategy for telling the public about the school's closure.

At that meeting, they decided to say only that students had been showing symptoms of an influenza-like illness and not mention the COVID-19 connection until Friday.

"That was the path forward with the first round of messaging," Oxarart said. "We were going to draft a release about a media briefing the next morning."

During the press conference, Dick said: "At the same time, unfortunately we had a leak of confidential information that occurred to the media," Dick said. "We responded to that, putting out as much accurate and credible information as possible in the press release we put out last night."

Dick became frustrated and demanded to be told more about the leaks when another reporter asked why the district waited so long to confirm the information.

"I would ask the press if you have leaked information available at 4 or 5 p.m., provide us with any information you have about that," he said. "I would certainly like to know about it because we were not provided information about it until 6 p.m. That would be important to understand how confidential information is appearing to the media inappropriately."

The information reported by the Reno Gazette Journal matched the information eventually released by the health district.

As the district moves forward with its investigation, it is asking individuals concerned about their health to call their doctor or the health district instead of physically visiting an office.

Individuals who believe they need a risk assessment should call the health district at 775-328-2427 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. People with general questions about the virus should visit the district's website to avoid overburdening the phone line.

Anjeanette Damon is the government watchdog reporter for the RGJ. You can reach her at adamon@rgj.com or follow her on Twitter @AnjeanetteDamon. If you care about shining a bright light on decisions made by your elected officials, please consider subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal.