CDC says it quickly approved coronavirus test in Sacramento, challenging UC Med Center claim
A top official with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Friday challenged Sacramento medical officials who implied they were forced to wait several days before federal authorities tested a symptomatic patient for the coronavirus.
The patient, a woman who has been at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento since Feb. 19, was intubated and has been described as severely ill. She was tested on Sunday, Feb. 23. The medical center disclosed on Wednesday that test results were positive. The discovery forced the medical center to order several employees to stay home this week. Those employees as well have been tested.
The woman, from Solano, has been considered to be the first known case in the U.S. of someone who contracted the virus here without having traveled recently overseas and without having had contact with anyone who recently returned from an international trip. Travis Air Force Base in Solano County was one of the landing spots for American tourists on a cruise ship that suffered an outbreak of coronavirus infections.
In a memo on Wednesday, UC Davis Medical Center officials appeared to point a finger at the CDC for delaying testing the woman. When the patient was admitted to the hospital, the UC Davis team asked public health officials if the case could be coronavirus and requested testing by the CDC, they said. Neither Sacramento County nor California Department of Public Health is doing testing for coronavirus at this time, they noted.
“Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process,” the said. “On Sunday, the CDC ordered COVID-19 testing of the patient and the patient was put on airborne precautions and strict contact precautions, because of our concerns about the patient’s condition. Today the CDC confirmed the patient’s test was positive.”
That statement led to a number of California politicians and others to accuse the CDC of not moving fast enough to quell the spread of the virus.
But federal officials pushed back at a press conference Friday, saying that they first heard about the patient on Sunday and approved the testing that day. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said her clinical team has not declined any request for testing.
“CDC first heard about this case from public health colleagues in California last Sunday, Feb. 23,” she said. “California reported a severely ill person who had not traveled abroad or had contact with (infected people). CDC recommended testing for COVID-19 that day. We received samples on Feb. 25 and confirmed the results ... on Feb. 26.”
Messonnier also contradicted comments from officials in Sacramento that the case is the first known domestic instance of infection by the new virus. “It is possible the patient had exposure to contact with a returned traveler who was infected,” they noted. CDC officials nonetheless said they have broadened their protocols for tests, and are stepping up efforts and testing in California.
Messonnier said the criteria has been “evolving to meet the needs of this existing condition.” She said her clinical team “has not said no to any request for testing.” But she acknowledged that the federal government’s efforts to launch testing in affected areas “has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked.” She said the CDC testing procedures have been upgraded, and soon will increase testing capacity around the country with new test kits.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state representatives have said they have been pushing the CDC to broaden its protocols to test more symptomatic people earlier. UC Medical Center officials declined to respond to Messonnier’s comments. Health officials say they are still tracking down people who may have come in contact with the woman before she checked into a hospital.
Hospital employees sent home
One hundred or more employees of three Northern California hospitals have been exposed in recent weeks to coronavirus and asked to stay at home pending tests to determine whether the contracted the virus, according to two Sacramento-area government officials.
Solano County officials on Friday said 93 NorthBay VacaValley Hospital workers have been identified as having come into contact with the woman when she was a patient there. Of those, 82 are not showing any symptoms, but are in quarantine. Another 11 are exhibiting some symptoms of illness, and have been tested. Those results are expected in the next day or two. Those workers are in home isolation.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, told McClatchyDC on Friday that three employees recently were sent home from Kaiser Permanente-South in Sacramento, who may have been exposed to the virus.
Sacramento County health chief Peter Beilenson told The Bee that a few dozen staff members at UC Davis Medical Center who had contact with the patient from Solano County have since been quarantined, though Beilenson said the hospital “over-represented the number of people that need to be quarantined.”
Swab samples from quarantined individuals have been sent to the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, and results should return within three days, he said.
“They don’t want to have a case where someone who is asymptomatic spreads it to six people who are already sick and have a respiratory issue,” Beilenson said. “Those are the last people you want to spread it to.”
Response and reaction to the coronavirus outbreak are elevating at the local, national and global levels, with the World Health Organization during a press conference Friday morning increasing its official risk assessment from “high” to “very high.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 1:45 PM with the headline "CDC says it quickly approved coronavirus test in Sacramento, challenging UC Med Center claim."