Planning for potential coronavirus cases intensifies, Sonoma County health official says

• Washing hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds • Avoid touching your eyes and face • Cough or sneeze into your sleeved elbow • Stay home when ill • Get a flu shot, and it’s not too late this season

Local health officials urge practicing good hygiene to reduce the risk of becoming infected with a respiratory virus, such as the flu or coronavirus. This includes:

The local strategy to combat coronavirus will intensify since the virus may be spreading in Northern California, Sonoma County’s health officer said Thursday.

“Things definitely shift at this point,” said Dr. Celeste Philip, the county’s health officer.

A Solano County resident with no known link to foreign travel or another infected person has tested positive for the virus, the first such confirmed case in the United States, state and federal health officials said Wednesday.

“This is a new situation from yesterday. Even if there is no travel, it might be warranted to test for COVID-19,” said Philip, noting public health officials here are talking with local health care providers today about ways to best identify and test vulnerable patients. “... That changes now who you would include in your population that could be at risk.”

Philip said when local patients show serious flu-like symptoms they could be included in COVID-19 testing procedures. Previously, only those linked to foreign travel or who had been in contact with someone who had traveled abroad raised red flags and prompted the involvement of county, state or federal health officials.

The unidentified Bay Area resident diagnosed with the virus has been treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento since Feb. 19 the medical center’s leaders disclosed to employees on Wednesday, according to several media reports.

“It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

There are 15 people in Northern California who have tested positive for coronavirus, CDC officials said. Fourteen of them were people transferred from Travis Air Force Base in Solano County to Bay Area hospitals, after returning to the United States last week from the virus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, federal health officials said. One of the 14 was transferred this week to a Sonoma County hospital, county health officials said. The person is being monitored in an isolation area of the hospital and is not showing any symptoms of the virus, health officials said, declining to identify the person or the hospital to protect the patient’s privacy.

Nationwide, there are about 60 confirmed cases of the virus, which originated last month in Wuhan, China and has affected about 80,000 people globally in at least 30 countries. More than 2,000 people have died from it.