SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) – A new case of the coronavirus confirmed in Northern California is possibly the first instance in the U.S. of “community spread.”
Officials say a patient from Solano County, California is being treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
What makes this case so concerning is the patient had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual.
“And so that suggests the virus is out there in the community and that means pretty much everybody is at risk,” said Dr. Dean Blumberg. “We don’t know who might be carrying it. We don’t know who we could get it from.”
Federal officials have been working closely with state and local partners to respond to this latest case.
Despite the case of so-called “community spread”, California health officials say the health risk from the coronavirus to the general public remains low.
At this point, it’s unclear how and where the patient got sick.
“That other person probably exposed other people and you have to realize that this virus is so new that none of us have any immunity to it,” Dr. Blumberg said. “So anybody who’s exposed is at high risk of getting infected with this.”
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