A second patient has died in a Redding hospital from COVID-19, and another four Shasta County residents have tested positive, bringing the total to eleven. The new cases include a married couple in their 70’s, a woman in her 60’s and a woman in her 50’s. The latest death is the man in his 80’s who had a positive test on Sunday. He’s the first believed to have contracted the virus through random community transmission, rather than traveling or being in close contact with an infected person. The other fatality was the woman in her 70’s who died last week after contracting the virus in the Sacramento area.
Meanwhile, another Coronavirus patient has recovered. The man in his 40’s was the third patient who tested positive. The first diagnosed patient, a man in his 50’s, has also recovered.
A female Shasta College student in her 20’s who apparently contracted the virus while traveling out of state may have exposed others while at the Shasta College Health Sciences Building in Downtown Redding on March 12th.
Tehama County has one confirmed Coronavirus case, a man in his 60’s. Siskiyou County has had three and Butte County has ten. Humboldt County has 37. Glenn County has two. There are none reported in Trinity, Lassen or Modoc Counties.
402 people in Shasta County have tested negative. 149 of those tests were done in the public health lab and the other 253 in private labs. There remains a severe shortage of testing materials as most are going to hard-hit urban areas, so local testing is still prioritized for people with the most severe symptoms, those who have knowingly been exposed, and those most at risk.
Plans are being finalized to set up a 125 bed field hospital inside the Redding Civic Auditorium, to be used for non-COVID patients in the event that more space is needed in the two major hospitals for COVID patients.