SANTA ANA (CNS) - The Orange County Board of Supervisors today approved an emergency declaration and heightened training of healthcare providers and first responders as they brace for a spread of coronavirus patients.
The action came amid word that a crew of Orange County Fire Authority firefighters have been placed in isolation at a station in Irvine after encountering a patient who may have the virus, known as COVID-19, on Saturday night.
Engine Company 20 firefighters cared for a patient taken to an area hospital, according to the OCFA's Colleen Windsor. She could not provide any information about the patient, who is being tested for the virus, with results expected possibly by the end of the business day.
``Out of an abundance of caution, we isolated the crew and rigorously cleaned'' their station and fire truck, Windsor said. ``The crew remains isolated in the station until we receive the test results.''
The rest of the Engine Company 20 firefighters who were not on the call, including the battalion chief, have been moved to another station.
The patient had traveled internationally and had symptoms similar to COVID-19. According to a memo from OCFA Chief Brian Fennessy dated Sunday, ``Unfortunately, the responding crew used some of the recommended personal protective equipment, but not all.''
The emergency declaration is ``to ensure our county is prepared to deal with any possible infection or ... outbreak in our county,'' Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do said at Monday's emergency meeting.
``The public may be a little confused about the level of alert they should have and how urgent this response should be, but we don't have the luxury of taking a chance,'' Do said. ``We are responsible for the health of our residents, so what I'm asking for us to do as a county is to assess our readiness.''
Do pointed out there have been ``logistical challenges'' elsewhere as well as ``delays and maybe some mistakes that were made, so we don't want to be put in the same position.''
The emergency declaration makes it easier for the county to call on additional resources from state and federal authorities if there is an outbreak, officials say.
``We just need to have the resources and protocol in place so we're not scrambling at the last minute to meet demands,'' Do said.
The increased training of healthcare providers in the county ``is even more necessary now that we have heard over 100 healthcare workers in Solana County may have been exposed to coronavirus,'' Do said. ``So, of the 89 cases reported in the U.S. as of Sunday, 42 were detected and tested, and of those, 19 were travel-related and 19 were person-to-person.''
Do said it was ``a little bit scary'' that there are four cases which remain undetermined as to the transmission.
``There are reports of 600 individuals here in Orange County under voluntary quarantine,'' Do said. ``They are in a voluntary quarantine because they have traveled to mainland China recently.''
Do added, ``But what of the others who traveled to Italy, Iran or South Korea?''
Meanwhile, a hearing that had been scheduled this afternoon on a request for a temporary restraining order to block plans to house coronavirus patients at the state-owned Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa has been canceled. U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton said the issue was moot since federal authorities on Friday said they have dropped those plans, which the city had opposed.
Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley had told City News Service on Friday that the city still wanted a TRO hearing ``because they (federal officials) have not been willing to confirm with us that this site won't be considered in the future, so we want to nail that down.''
Staton, however, said in a written ruling that she could not provide any injunctive relief if the issue was made moot by an abandonment of the plans for Fairview.
The federal government's announcement in court papers filed on Friday followed a 3 1/2-hour meeting held Thursday among state, federal and local officials on the plan that Staton put on hold last Monday.
According tot he Friday court filing, federal authorities have ``determined, as it informed the state today ..., that it now does not need to use the Fairview Developmental Center site to maintain a federal quarantine of passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. This development reflects the imminent end of the quarantine period for those passengers, as well as the unexpectedly small number of passengers who have tested positive for COVID- 19.''
Initially, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that ``as many as 50% of the passengers (from the cruise ship that was quarantined while docked in Japan) could test positive within the quarantine period; in fact, actual results have been much, much lower,'' according to the court document.
Federal authorities said, however, the restraining order ``deprived public health officials of a secure quarantine facility at a time when such a facility was badly needed, and has occupied key hospital resources in other counties at a time when those resources were needed for other patients. This litigation has also consumed myriad other state and federal resources, including the attention of key public health officials, at a time when the state is working to marshal every available resource to protect the public. Because the situation has evolved, and because state public health officials have found new ways to confront that evolving situation, this case is now moot.''