Sonoma County Ramps Up Coronavirus Testing

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In an effort to detect and head off community spread of the coronavirus in the North Bay, Sonoma County on Tuesday announced an aggressive acceleration of local testing.

In partnership with the three main hospitals in the county, the county plans to conduct 60 proactive tests, in an effort to determine if coronavirus exists in the general population, and if so, how prevalent it is.

So far tests have only been possible under strict guidelines, and only with the permission of the Centers for Disease Control. On Friday, the county received a test kit giving it the ability to conduct its own testing on more than 200 individuals. More tests kits are expected soon.

At present, only three cases of coronavirus are being treated in the county, and all of those were detected in people who were passengers on cruise ships. In total, 29 tests have been performed in the public health lab in Santa Rosa, all of them negative.

Now, each of the three hospitals will collect samples from 20 people who arrive in their emergency rooms, ten on people with flu like symptoms and a risk factor, and 10 on patients with flu-like symptoms and no risk factor.

The goal will be to determine if community spread is happening in Sonoma County, and if so, how prevalent it is in the local population.

At the same time, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors adopted a pandemic addition to its emergency plan on Tuesday, laying out protocols and procedures should a large scale local spread of the virus be detected.