LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday the Lake County Public Health Department confirmed a fourth positive case of COVID-19 in Lake County, while neighboring counties announced updated shelter in place orders.
Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said the fourth case is related to one of the previous three.
“The fourth case is a part of one of the other households, and they have been under isolation,” he said in an email responding to Lake County News’ questions about the case.
Pace did not respond to Lake County News’ request to clarify to which household the fourth case belonged.
The first two cases, confirmed on Sunday and Monday, were reported to involve close family members, one of whom had been in contact with a known case at an out-of-county workplace, as Lake County News has reported.
The third case, confirmed on Tuesday, also involved an initial contact with an infected person out of county, Public Health reported.
In that third case, information released by Pace indicated the person had been out in the community over the previous weeks, before testing positive.
Pace said earlier this week that the third case “illustrates the importance of everyone maintaining ‘shelter in place,’ and wearing a mask when in the public because virus transmission can occur from people with no obvious symptoms.”
Regarding the fourth case, Pace said, “There does not seem to be any further risk of community transmission from this case. It does show how much it can travel through a household.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines community transmission or spread as “spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown.”
Lake County Public Health reported that all four patients are isolating at home. None are reported to have recovered so far.
Pace offered no other details in response to Lake County News’ questions.
He and his department have declined to give further information about the cases, including demographics and locations of patients, citing the need to protect privacy.
Other counties around the state, however, have offered breakdowns of age, gender and community of residence, among other details when reporting their COVID-19 cases.
In addition to the four positive tests, there have been 238 negative tests, according to Lake County Public Health’s case dashboard.
The Public Health dashboard said information on how many total tests of Lake County residents have been conducted is not available.
Lake County residents have been under a shelter in place order implemented by Pace since March 19. He extended it this week to continue until May 3. Under his order, Lake County waterways, including Clear Lake, are closed, an effort that is meant in part to discourage out-of-area visitors.
Pace is advising people to wear facial coverings when out of doors but it is not so far a requirement.
On Friday, Public Health departments across the state were reporting positive case totals topping 20,000, with more than 550 deaths.
Lake’s neighboring counties have so far reported the following positive case counts: Colusa, three; Glenn, three; Mendocino, four; Napa, 32 cases and two deaths; Sonoma, 142 cases and one death; Yolo, 71 cases and three deaths.
In other regional news, Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan issued a third revised shelter in place order for that county which goes into effect at 10 p.m. Friday and will remain in place until May 10.
Doohan’s updated order says that wearing facial coverings in public is strongly encouraged and made mandatory in certain instances, such as during recreation in parks, and requires essential businesses to create and post social distancing protocols.
During a Wednesday night coronavirus virtual town hall hosted by State Sen. Mike McGuire, Doohan – who was a panelist, as was Pace – indicated she was planning to take the action to require facial coverings in some instances.
Also on Friday, Colusa County Public Health Officer Dr. Gregory Burt issued an order extending and expanding that county’s shelter in place directives through May 8. Burt had first issued an order to shelter in place and maintain social distancing on March 20.
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Fourth COVID-19 case confirmed in Lake County; Colusa, Mendocino counties update shelter in place orders
- Elizabeth Larson
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