Two more people in Los Angeles County have tested positive for the coronavirus, including one for whom no source of exposure can be found, possibly representing the county’s first case of community spread of the illness, health officials announced Monday.
According to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, head of the county Department of Public Health, one of the new cases is a person with a known travel history to Japan. But Ferrer said health officials cannot identify any known exposure to the illness for the second patient.
With that patient representing the first possible case of community spread of the illness, Ferrer said people who are pregnant, have underlying health conditions or are elderly should immediately being “social distancing practices,” such as avoiding unnecessary travel or gathering in large groups.
The two new patients, who are in isolation, bring the county’s overall total to 16. The other cases are:
— eight people in the travel group to Italy;
— two contract employees who were conducting coronavirus medical screenings of arriving passengers at Los Angeles International Airport;
— two relatives of a person who lives outside the county and was also confirmed with the virus; and
— a person who attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference in Washington, D.C.; and
— a traveler from the area of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. That person, the county’s first patient, has since recovered.
Meanwhile, at Cal State Long Beach, university officials confirmed that 10 students are in self-quarantine after attending a “large event in Washington, D.C., at which three people subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.” The college did not specify the event or confirm if they also attended the AIPAC conference, at which at least two people subsequently tested positive.
CSULB officials said the students are not showing any symptoms of the illness and the university is “in ongoing communication with them and we are closely monitoring their health status.”
There have been 22 deaths from coronavirus in the United States, while more than 3,800 people have died worldwide.