Coronavirus Pandemic: Sonoma County Reports Its First Coronavirus Death
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) -- Health officials have announced Sonoma County's first death from the coronavirus, the 11th fatality from COVID-19 in the San Francisco Bay Area since the outbreak began and the fourth death reported in the region on Friday.
The Sonoma County announcement came on the same day Contra Costa County reported its first coronavirus death and two more deaths were reported in Santa Clara County. It was the deadliest day of the current outbreak.
Interim Public health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said she received the news of a death as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus among Sonoma County residents doubled to 22.
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that a source with Sutter Santa Rosa confirmed the person died Friday afternoon.
"We need to be prepared for a worsening situation here over the next week," Mase told the paper, noting that "every case infects another three, so the more cases we have the more cases we get, so this is exactly what we expected."
Mase did not reveal any additional information on the person who died, including the person's age or information about how long the person had been sick or if they had traveled outside Sonoma County recently.
Elsewhere, Santa Clara County has been particularly hard hit by the virus outbreak accounting for eight of the 22 deaths reported in California so far and all but three of the COVID-19 deaths in the Bay Area. Aside from the Sonoma death, single fatalities have been reported in San Mateo County and Contra Costa County.
Santa Clara health officials said the county's seventh death was an adult male in his 80s who had been hospitalized on Tuesday, March 3. The eighth death was an adult male in his 70s, but health officials did not provide information on when he had been hospitalized or the date he passed away.
In Contra Costa County, health officials announced Friday that a patient in their 70s being treated in a local hospital had died of complications from the virus.
While releasing few details, officials said: "The patient died Thursday in a hospital in Contra Costa County. The Contra Costa resident was in their 70s and had a pre-existing condition that put them at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, and a history of recent overseas travel."
The latest statistics released on Saturday had the number of confirmed cases in the state to 1,224. Bay Area cases rose to 662 with the four leading counties being 263 cases in Santa Clara, 110 in San Mateo, 84 in San Francisco and 65 in Alameda County.