Thanks to @V2019N for alerting me to this report in the Davis, California Enterprise: Newly diagnosed coronavirus patient being treated at UC Davis Medical Center. Excerpt and then a comment:
The UC Davis Medical Center is treating a patient who may be the first person in the country to have contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) from community exposure.
The California Department of Public Health reported Wednesday the individual is a resident of Solano County who had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual.
An email sent out Wednesday by two UC Davis officials said the patient arrived at the medical center in Sacramento last Wednesday but was only tested for the virus on Sunday despite a request made by med center officials that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conduct a test when the patient was admitted.
“Today the CDC confirmed the patient’s test was positive,” said the email from David Lubarsky, vice-chancellor of human health services, and Brad Simmons, interim CEO of UC Davis Medical Center.
“This is not the first COVID-19 patient we have treated, and because of the precautions we have had in place since this patient’s arrival, we believe there has been minimal potential for exposure here at UC Davis Medical Center,” the email said.
Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures.
Lubarsky and Simmons said the patient was transferred to UC Davis from “another Northern California hospital” on Wednesday, Feb 19.
“When the patient arrived, the patient had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” the email said.
“Since the patient arrived with a suspected viral infection, our care teams have been taking the proper infection prevention precautions during the patient’s stay.
“Upon admission, our team asked public health officials if this case could be COVID-19. We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, since neither Sacramento County nor (the California Department of Public Health) is doing testing for coronavirus at this time. Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered,” said the email, which added that, “UC Davis Health does not control the testing process.”
On Sunday, the CDC ordered COVID-19 testing of the patient and the patient was put on airborne precautions and strict contact precautions. The positive test results were announced on Wednesday.
Oh boy. How long was this patient in "another Northern California hospital" before being transferred to UC Davis a full week ago? In what ways did the patient not meet the CDC criteria?
The patient was in UC Davis from Wednesday the 19th but not tested until Sunday the 23rd. And while the "proper infection prevention precautions" were taken, some number of employees still had to be asked to self-isolate.
On top of this, UC Davis says it doesn't control COVID-19 tests, it just does what it's told. This does not bode well.
