7th coronavirus case confirmed in Monterey County
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION)
UPDATE 3/21/20 11:10 a.m.- The Monterey County Health Department has announced that one of Monterey County's seven cases of COVID-19 was transmitted through community spread.
UPDATE 3/20/20 6:30 p.m. - Two more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Monterey County, according to Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System. This brings the total number of positive cases in Monterey County to seven.
SVMHS tells KION both people tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. SVMHS says they have sent 50 lab swabs to the Monterey County Health Department for testing and 5 have come back positive. Two more positive cases have come from other medical facilities.
This is a developing story
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A fifth person has tested positive for coronavirus in Monterey County, according to a report from the county.
The first two cases were announced Tuesday and two more were reported Thursday. Of those cases, four were travel-related and the fifth was from person-to-person spread.
Personal information about the patients will not be released due to privacy laws.
On Tuesday, the county issued a Shelter in Place order and Governor Newsom issued a stay at home order Thursday.
The County originally said it will only update data from Monterey County Public Health on Mondays going forward, but changed that to daily updates.
The Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System tells KION it has not seen any cases of secondary spread. SVMHS shared its concerns about supplies, saying they are okay for now, but if the situation continues for months, they will run out of supplies. They did say, however, that they have resources.
Currenlty, SVMHS said the county is not able to accommodate all of the testing it would like to do, but once rapid testing is available, a broader portion of the community will be able to be tested.
Hospitals are not at capacity right now, according to SVMHS, and they are optimistic that they can accommodate a higher number of patients if necessary.
