FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Four patients with newly confirmed cases of coronavirus [COVID-19] are now receiving treatment at Northern California hospitals, a CDC spokesperson confirms.
These four patients are Americans who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan and brought to Travis Air Force Base in Solano County for a 14-day period of quarantine. On Monday afternoon, CDC officials said test results came back positive for four of the evacuees staying at Travis. Hours later, they were taken to hospitals in Napa, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties.
That brings the total number of Diamond Princess passengers evacuated to Travis Air Force Base who then tested positive for the coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, to 19.
Of those 19, 15 patients — including the four newest cases — are in Northern California hospitals, spread over several counties. The remaining four were taken to medical facilities in the Spokane, Wash.
CDC spokesperson Scott Pauley said patients are going to hospitals across several counties "to make sure the burden doesn’t overwhelm Solano County’s" health services and system. This also isn't impacting the number of beds for regular hospital patients.
"COVID-19 patients require specialized isolation rooms where the average hospital patient would not stay," Pauley said.
He also explained by spreading the patients across multiple counties, the CDC isn't expanding the risk of exposure because every hospital, "has CDC protocols in place."
"Nobody in the community or hospitals are at heightened risk," Pauley added.
The CDC expects more test results soon from those who were evacuated to Travis AFB
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