Three L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies and five firefighters have been quarantined after responding to the death of a woman this week with coronavirus, the sheriff said on Thursday.
The 60-year-old woman tested positive for the novel coronavirus after her death in Pomona on Monday, March 9. She had been visiting a family in Walnut, officials have confirmed.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the woman had an underlying medical condition and had traveled internationally, including a long layover in South Korea. The woman died shortly after she was hospitalized in full cardiac arrest, according to Ferrer and officials at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center.
In a health alert shared to its website Thursday, the city of Walnut said the woman’s travel history included a stay at a residence there. Los Angeles County public health officials have said the woman did not circulate around the community and stayed primarily at the residence. The family members of the patient are currently in quarantine, according to the city’s statement.
The city is coordinating with L.A. County public health officials to learn more about the woman’s stay in Walnut and her travel in the region.
In the meantime, the first-responding personnel have been quarantined at their homes and were being monitored for symptoms, officials said Thursday.
“So far they are all asymptomatic, knock on wood, and hopefully it stays that way,” said Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
So far in L.A. County there have been 32 confirmed cases of the virus — four in Long Beach and one in Pasadena — and the one death, according to the County of Los Angeles Public Health Department.
While none of the personnel had tested positive for the respiratory illness that has led to 36 deaths in the United States and 1,215 cases in the United States, Villanueva was concerned that if the virus is not contained, similar instances could affect the allocation of resources in his department and smaller ones across the county, if their personnel contacts people who have the virus.
“It just kind of demonstrates the threat of the virus to first responders,” he said. “We keep getting first responders in quarantine, we run out of first responders.”
Out of caution, the county has raised its emergency operations center response readiness to a “Level 1,” enabling emergency agencies from various jurisdictions to coordinate a strong mutual aid response between the county’s 88 cities.
The Level 1 response allows the county to mobilize resources under the supervision of people who have expertise in crisis operations, Villanueva said.
The Sheriff’s Department is canceling vacations through the end of April to assure continuity of personnel, Villanueva said.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer said on Thursday she had no reports that any of the first-responders tested positive for the virus, but she acknowledged the risk that responders are walking into. Her department has issued guidance on personal protection.
Among new protocols for that protection include new questions that dispatchers will now ask on 911 calls, such as if someone has been out of the country in the last 14 days, or if the person needing help has had a cough or a fever, said L.A. County Fire Inspector Henry Narvaez, a spokesman for the department.
A dispatcher will flag that information for responders, who would then relay it to the responder contacting a person who needs help. For instance, an emergency responder would could send less personnel into a home initially, and they would wear personal protective gear.
The Walnut Valley Unified School District issued a statement Thursday that no student within the district lives at the residence where the woman had been staying. The district said it is coordinating with the county health department and that all schools remain open and on their regular schedules.
Hospital officials were also working to lessen the risk to its own workers.
“Our highly trained staff followed all appropriate infection control protocols and took every precaution in caring for this patient, who tragically succumbed to their complications,” said Dr. Daniel Gluckstein, director of Infectious Disease at Pomona Valley Hosptial Medical Center. “… The hospital has identified all staff who came into contact with the patient while providing care and is following all LA County Department of Public Health guidelines regarding healthcare worker exposure. We understand people are feeling anxious about potential exposure to coronavirus, but we want to reassure our patients and their families that the risk of exposure from this case is low.”
COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms associated with the respiratory disease, which appear two-to-14 days after exposure, include fever, a cough and shortness of breath. While most people — including healthy young adults — will experience mild symptoms, the disease can be severe and even fatal for at-risk groups, such as the elderly and those with underlying health problems.
