City officials on Friday confirmed San Antonio’s first case of novel coronavirus unrelated to the evacuees at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and issued a new public health emergency, ushering in sweeping measures to guard against further spread of the virus.

The new case, which was confirmed by testing late Thursday, appears to be connected to travel in the U.S., including California. It is not believed to have resulted from person-to-person spread in San Antonio, said Dawn Emerick, director of the Metropolitan Health District. The infected person, who has been self-quarantined at home with family members, started showing symptoms in early March.

Epidemiologists with Metro Health are conducting a contact tracing investigation to learn the patient’s recent movements and level of exposure to others. After that work has been completed, Emerick said more information will be released to the public.

The public health emergency, which went into effect late Friday morning, prohibits gatherings of more than 500 people. Mayor Ron Nirenberg said officials are also strongly recommending that events with 250 to 500 people be canceled, too.

Exceptions include hospitals, schools and churches and similar public places. Most area public and charter school districts, however, have extended their spring breaks, and many universities in the area moved their classes online.

The declaration lasts for at least a week, but the City Council could extend it by another 30 days.

“The first travel-related case underscores the importance of additional measures to protect the public,” Nirenberg said.

On ExpressNews.com: In abrupt reversal, federal officials to only quarantine Texans at Lackland

More Information Local hotline Call the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District for information about the coronavirus: 210-207-5779 (Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., English and Spanish)

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Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday also declared a statewide disaster and announced that the state’s first drive-through testing site would be in San Antonio. Late Friday afternoon, tents and a mobile medical unit were set up in a parking lot across the street from UT Health San Antonio’s Medical Arts and Research Center. The site, which will be open every day during business hours, was packed up shortly after 5 p.m.

The testing site will initially be available on an appointment-only basis to select people who meet testing criteria, including first responders, health care workers, operators of critical infrastructure and key resources, and certain high-risk patients. Later, it would be open to the public, but a doctor’s recommendation will likely be required. Results will be available within 24 to 48 hours.

Local officials said they weren’t surprised to see a case of the coronavirus, which has reached pandemic levels and has rapidly spread across the country over the past two weeks. Previously, about a dozen cases of the virus had been diagnosed among evacuees brought to San Antonio from China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were quarantined at Lackland, but those individuals were kept in isolation from the public.

Canceled events, no juries, city closures

The city’s emergency order has upended events and services across the city.

Fiesta has been postponed until Nov. 5-15. The St. Patrick’s Day parade and the dyeing of the San Antonio River green Saturday are canceled, along with this weekend’s Tejano Music Awards Fan Fair.

Late Friday, the city announced the temporary shutdown of a number of public locations this weekend and next week. They include all libraries, Pre-K 4 SA centers, Café College and city-owned museums and galleries.

In an effort to protect the public from the highly contagious virus, widespread changes are also being implemented in the local criminal justice system.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said jury trials are on hold for the next 30 days, and officials are looking to reduce the arrests of nonviolent offenders. The county is working with the district attorney’s office, the San Antonio Police Department and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office to ensure “we don’t cause a health crisis at our own jail,” he said.

On ExpressNews.com: Inside the release of the Diamond Princess evacuees

This is the second time Nirenberg has declared a public health emergency in response to the threat of the coronavirus, which has been confirmed in more than 2,000 people nationwide and killed several dozen. The first, issued on March 2, had specifically sought to extend the quarantine of evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship so that they could be retested for the virus.

A third group of evacuees arrived at Lackland on two planes this week, this time from the Grand Princess, a sister ship of the Diamond Princess where coronavirus also surfaced. Although evacuees from the ship are still being moved to different locations for quarantine, eventually only Texans will remain on the base as they complete two-week quarantines.

Emerick said two of the 149 evacuees currently housed at a hotel on the base are showing symptoms of the COVID-19 respiratory illness — fever, coughing and shortness of breath. None have yet received an official diagnosis, said Joe Smith, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to JBSA-Lackland, some of the Grand Princess evacuees are now living in on-base housing designated for Noncommissioned Officer Academy students, who have been moved to a downtown hotel for the time being. All of the previous groups of evacuees had been housed only at the Gateway Inn, a hotel on base.

It was not clear why some evacuees have been placed in a new area on the base. Smith said he couldn’t comment on the change.

‘If our health care workers go down, this becomes a problem’

As more cases of the virus are identified in the community, Emerick stressed that the public should treat emergency rooms as “a last resort,” even if they believe they may be infected. Only the sickest patients should seek hospital care, she said, and others should self-quarantine and call their doctors for further instructions.

Otherwise, she said, the health care system could be overwhelmed with patients, unnecessarily exposing medical personnel to the virus.

“We need to protect our health care workers,” Emerick said. “If our health care workers go down, this becomes a problem.”

Hospitals across the city have introduced their own safety measures to protect medical staff and patients from the virus, including closing certain entrances, screening everyone for signs of illness before they enter a facility and limiting visitation.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio hospitals start screening visitors for coronavirus

Testing for the coronavirus became available this week through Metro Health, as well as at two commercial laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. While the city has been flooded with requests about tests, Emerick said it will not be available to every person who wants one.

Metro Health decided late Thursday to revise its criteria for testing so that it can be more accessible to the community, Emerick said. The department is expected to release new guidelines soon.

However, she emphasized that the purpose of testing is mainly for those with “signs and symptoms,” not to give people the peace of mind that they don’t have the virus.

“The tests are diagnostic tools,” Emerick said. “They are not screening tools.”

Abbott said the state has tested 220 Texans so far for the coronavirus, and he expects public and private labs to exponentially increase the capacity next week. The labs should be capable of testing several thousand people a week.

On ExpressNews.com: ‘Calm the panic’: San Antonio health officials begin pivot to community coronavirus plan

Officials recommend that residents continue to exercise precautions, such as frequent hand washing, disinfecting of high-touch surfaces and objects and avoiding crowded places when possible.

Nirenberg also asked that consumers not “hoard” things like hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes because that will only encourage the spread of disease if some people cannot access those supplies.

There may be many sleepless nights ahead, Nirenberg said, adding that “we will get through this.”

Staff writers Taylor Goldenstein and Sig Christenson contributed reporting. | Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba