Coronavirus cases in Nevada up to 4 with reports in Washoe, Clark counties

RENO — Washoe County health officials Sunday announced the second Reno-area case of coronavirus infection and recommended that people reconsider their travel plans as the virus continues to spread throughout the U.S.

The latest positive case in Reno is a man in his 30s whose only known travel was to Santa Clara, California. The man, who was not further identified, is self-isolating at home, Washoe County District Health Officer Kevin Dick said Sunday. As with other COVID-19 cases, the diagnosis is considered presumptive positive pending confirmation by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The man checked himself into a local emergency room Saturday morning, and the positive test result came back late that night, Dick said. The man’s symptoms only appeared after he had traveled to Santa Clara, California.

The health district is working to identify anyone who had close contact with the man as well as “conducting community surveillance” to determine if there has been any spread to the community.

“Fortunately, this case is a person who has taken the precaution of staying home since they became ill for the vast majority of their time here. So we don’t have, with this individual, a huge number of contacts that we might have,” Dick said.

Dick noted that the first three cases in Nevada have all been travel-related and said the county is recommending that people consider restricting travel in the near future in order to reduce the risk of further spread of the virus.

“Given these cases, it is important to recognize that travel to other areas domestically and internationally does pose risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission,” Dick said. “We believe that a cautious approach to curtail travel plans will help protect our residents from possible exposure during travel and will help reduce the number of travel-related COVID-19 cases that occur in Washoe County.”

Four cases in Nevada

The Reno-area case announced Sunday marked the third positive coronavirus case in Nevada. A fourth was announced later Sunday after the Southern Nevada Health District said it had received a report of another positive case.

Dick said Washoe County has requested additional money and supplies from the federal government to expand its efforts to track, investigate and contain cases. He said state and local governments were expected to receive $950 million of the $8.3 billion in federal emergency assistance approved last week and that the county had already requested $200,000 from the CDC.

“Our need we believe will be in the millions of dollars with this situation,” he said.

Dick declined to offer additional details about the latest reported case, such as where the man worked. He said the county had to safeguard confidential information it receives from the federal government, such as flight and ship passenger manifests, as well as certain confidential medical records.

“While I know there’s been some criticism that we haven’t released everything that people have asked for, we have a responsibility as the public health agency to properly manage the confidential information that we receive,” he said. “It really has to be information that’s necessary to be disclosed.”

He added that the family of first Washoe County case had “been harmed by the disclosure of information about them.”

“These are unfortunate innocent people,” he said. “And it’s important that we respect their privacy and we don’t stigmatize people.”

Nevada reported its first coronavirus case on Thursday, saying that a military veteran in his 50s who had recently traveled to Washington state and Texas, had tested positive and was presumed to have COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.

That was followed later the same day by a report in Washoe County that another man, also in his 50s, had tested positive for the virus. The Reno-area man was a passenger on a cruise ship now in quarantine off San Francisco.

A young relative of the first Washoe patient attends a Reno elementary school that was closed Friday as a precaution and for cleaning, but no others have tested positive and the school was to reopen Monday.

The cruise ship is now expected to dock in Oakland on Monday. So far, 21 people among 3,500 passengers and crew have tested positive for COVID-19. Those remaining passengers include 78-year-old Summerlin resident Ronald Griebell and his wife and daughter.

The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services said Friday night that 40 Nevadans were passengers on the ship from a previous voyage. They are being contacted for testing.

Symptoms from infection by the coronavirus range from mild to severe, with some people developing pneumonia. The two Nevada cases illustrate that, as the patient in Southern Nevada is in isolation at the VA Medical Center in North Las Vegas while the Northern Nevada man is self-quarantined at home and was in stable condition as of Friday, Washoe County Health District officials said.

Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter. Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.