Orange County officials on Wednesday, Feb. 26, declared a local health emergency in response to coronavirus, but they urged residents not to become alarmed as there is no current local outbreak.

There has only been one confirmed case of the virus – also known as COVID-19 – in Orange County, and Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do said that person has since recovered.

Even without local cases of illness, officials said declaring an emergency will help the county better prepare for what the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described on Tuesday as the “community spread” of coronavirus.

“This is a rapidly evolving situation,” County Health Officer Nichole Quick said, adding that the emergency declaration will allow the county to be “more nimble and flexible” in responding.

Late Wednesday, the CDC reported what may be the first case of “community transmission” of the virus, according to a news release from the California Department of Public Health. A person in Solano County is getting medical care after testing positive for COVID-19, and “had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual,” the release said.

Quick also said some Orange County hospitals will begin testing patients with flu-like symptoms for coronavirus. The testing comes at the request of the CDC, which is seeking to increase monitoring across the country, Quick said. She didn’t immediately have details on which hospitals or how many would administer coronavirus tests.

Elsewhere in the state, San Diego County and the city of San Francisco also have declared local emergencies in relation to the virus.

San Francisco, which declared an emergency Tuesday, Feb. 25, has no confirmed coronavirus cases.

In San Diego County, hundreds of Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China – the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – had been quarantined at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar but have since been released; two of those people were diagnosed with the virus, but they were treated and eventually released.

Worldwide, more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed, including about 2,700 deaths, the vast majority of them in China. More than 50 cases have been confirmed in the United States.

Meanwhile, Orange County officials are waiting to learn whether the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa will be used to house people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

Late last week, Costa Mesa sued to block a plan state and federal authorities were discussing to place a number of California residents at Fairview until they are no longer carrying the virus. Orange County supervisors on Tuesday voted to file a brief in support of the city’s lawsuit.

Costa Mesa officials said they received little notification of the planned move, and questioned the suitability of the 60-year-old center, noting that state officials had previously questioned its viability as a place to temporarily house the homeless.

A federal judge hearing the city’s case Monday, Feb. 24, kept in place a temporary restraining order and ordered the two sides to meet before another hearing set for March 2. Do said at the press conference that meeting will take place Thursday, Feb. 27.

County officials said the move to declare an emergency wasn’t motivated by concerns about Fairview, but they are taking the opportunity to assess the county’s ability to manage a coronavirus outbreak if one does occur.

“We will do whatever we can to keep Orange County coronavirus-free,” Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel said.

Also on Wednesday, state Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom asking for more information about the state’s proposal to house people with COVID-19 in Costa Mesa.

The state has 37,279 either owned or leased properties, some of which likely meet the criteria of having individual rooms with their own bathrooms so patients can stay isolated, Moorlach’s letter said.

“Communication is the key to battling the threat of the coronavirus,” Moorlach wrote. “As the state is considering the next steps on addressing the coronavirus, please understand our collective concerns and act in a way that protects the health of our community as well as the health of those infected with the virus.”

The City News Service contributed to this report.