Coronavirus Test Results Back In Calaveras County, New Exposure Reported
San Andreas, CA — The test results are back for a handful of Calaveras County residents that were passengers on the Grand Princess Cruise ship quarantined off the coast, which is linked to the first coronavirus-related death in the state of a Placer County man — now 21 current passengers have tested positive for the virus. The most recent updates are here.
As we reported here on Thursday, five to ten people in the county were on home quarantine with a few showing possible signs of the illness awaiting test results. Calaveras County Health Officer Dr. Dean Kelaita tells Clarke Broadcasting there has been a new development, “So, those individuals [on the ship] are negative, but we’ve got a group of another few individuals who we’re also testing because they had exposure to a COVID-19 patient outside of our community.”
It was three days ago that Kelaita says he was notified of their exposure. He would not reveal the exact number of people or where they live in the county. Also, he would not divulge where they came in contact with the sick person, except to say it was in Northern California and several counties away. Kelaita confirms that all are self-quarantined in their homes awaiting test results, which should come over the weekend or on Monday with an update from his office early next week.
All the testing is free to the individuals through the California Department of Public Health and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Kelaita knows they are not out of the woods yet, his department is monitoring the situation very carefully. Hoping for a negative outcome for this new group of patients, Kelaita had this reaction to today’s results “I was pleased for two reasons. I was pleased because the persons that were involved don’t have a serious illness for them. I was also pleased to see that we’re not seeing the introduction of COVID-19 infection into our community.”
Those that have tested negative from the ship have been released from quarantine. Additionally, it has now been 14-days for those in home isolation. Kelaita updates, “None of those people have developed any symptoms. Today they are released from quarantine and they can go about their lives again.” This is exactly what he says the rest of the public should be doing since there is no confirmed case of coronavirus in the county.
