New California Coronavirus Case May Be 1st From Unknown Origin
Speaker 1: 00:01 The centers for disease control is investigating what could be the first instance of community spread of the novel. Coronavirus after a patient being treated at a Sacramento area, hospital tested positive. The patient had not traveled internationally and hadn't had any known contact with others who are infected. Meantime, president Trump addressed the nation on Wednesday afternoon with topic government scientist at his side. Speaker 2: 00:25 We're very, very ready for this for anything, whether it's going to be a breakout of larger proportions or whether or not we're uh, you know, we're at that very low level. Speaker 1: 00:38 Joining us to talk more about all of this is dr Francesca Tory, Yani, the program director of infection prevention and clinical epidemiology at UC San Diego health. Dr Tory, welcome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Now, how concerning is that case in Northern California to you? The fact that this patient hadn't traveled internationally, no known contact with travelers? Speaker 3: 01:01 This is clearly pointing at the fact that we have the presence of this virus in the community, uh, without travel is worrisome. And that is what hospitals and healthcare systems have been preparing, uh, along with in collaboration with the CDC. Speaker 1: 01:27 And does this mean that the disease could be spreading now in the U S Speaker 3: 01:31 yes, I think that it, it basically says that this disease may be in the community or in some communities and therefore we have to switch from a containment strategy alone by containing from people who are traveling and in focusing our processes of screening on people who have traveled to a symptoms in the community that could be related to call vid 19 this in the midst of a very active influenza season that hopefully is winding down. And so with different viral diseases that can confuse the picture. Speaker 1: 02:21 Well, that brings up the question of diagnosis. So I show up at my doctor, I, I'm sneezing a feverish, do I have the flu? Do I maybe have this virus? How do you diagnose that now? Speaker 3: 02:30 So, first of all, I would say, uh, if you are just sneezing and you're feel fine and you're not running high fevers, you're not short of breath, you don't have a bad cough, then don't go to your doctor, uh, Cordin and an ask for, uh, for help and guidance. If now you are having high fevers, uh, cough, uh, and uh, sneezing and you're not feeling well or you're short of breath, then you should, you should call in your doctor and, uh, go have yourself worked up because you might have other, uh, circulating infections that can cause pneumonia. Uh, and if those are ruled out, then at that point you might fit, uh, a Corvid 19 patient. Speaker 1: 03:27 Well, that brings up the question of testing our hospitals, clinics, doctor's offices here and across the nation. Equipped now to test for this specific virus Speaker 3: 03:36 testing for Cole. Vid, uh, 19 is, uh, still, uh, by limited laboratories. Um, up until, um, a couple of days ago, only the CDC, uh, was testing. They, they opened a second lab to allow for more testing, but clear this was a bottleneck. Now more and more, uh, public health, uh, counties, uh, have labs that will be able to test and we are definitely hoping that San Diego is one of them. Speaker 1: 04:13 Now in yesterday's press conference, president Trump credited border restrictions that have blocked people coming to the U S from China for keeping infections low, but now other countries are experienced the larger outbreaks, uh, the news keeps evolving of course day to day on this. Do you think these restrictions are enough to contain the spread, Speaker 3: 04:30 these restrictions? If there is local spread of disease, these restrictions will likely become moot as we will have to once again switch our strategies to mitigation and to trying to contain this disease within our community. Speaker 1: 04:50 And what precautions should people be taking now? Uh, basically the same as they do in flu season in terms of, well, you tell me washing hands and sneezing and precautions, et cetera. Speaker 3: 05:02 Yes. So clearly fluidity, influenza, like illnesses or spread in the same way. And we think that core vid 19 in the end will be also viewed the same as as influenza. And therefore, uh, keeping a physical distance or of about six feet from another person, not having close contact. Uh, if, if, uh, washing your hands very often and covering, covering your coffin, sneezes and getting vaccinated for the flu are really important things. Speaker 1: 05:43 Now what do we know, uh, at this point about the rate of a fatality with covert 19? And how does it compare with the flu in a typical year? Or is it really too early to really even make that call? Speaker 3: 05:54 It is a little bit too early. Uh, what we're seeing is, is data from China that is clearly, uh, worrisome. We had, um, more or less calculated a 2.4% mortality rate. Overall, this virus appears to affect, uh, mainly, uh, elderly people with underlying diseases such as diabetes, uh, chronic respiratory diseases, heavy smokers, heart diseases. And so those are the populations where we see the most severe disease. Speaker 1: 06:34 Now, how fast might we see an effective vaccine for this? Speaker 3: 06:38 I think that dr Fowchee was very clear yesterday on the briefing that this is a nine or one nine or 12 months away. Speaker 1: 06:47 I've been speaking with dr Francesca [inaudible] program, director of infection prevention and clinical epidemiology at UC San Diego health. Dr Tory Ani. Thanks very much. Thanks very much for having me. Governor Gavin Newsome held a news conference this morning to reassure Californians about the coven 19 outbreak. Do some said many more testing sites are opening in California. He's getting plenty of help and resources from the Trump administration and people should be focused and concerned, but not overly anxious going forward.
