Six new positive cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Mendocino County Friday, all identified as connected to the Assembly of God Church in Redwood Valley, for a total of 21 cases in the county.
“We now have a total of nine individuals connected to the Assembly of God Church in Redwood Valley, seven of whom are Mendocino County residents, two who live in Lake County,” said Public Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan, expressing gratitude to the two Lake County residents for sharing their status on Facebook, because it allowed her office to identify the source of the outbreak.
Once the Mother’s Day church service was identified as the location of virus contraction, Doohan said her office hosted “large-scale drive-thru testing at Eagle Peak Middle School in Redwood Valley last week.” So far, 333 tests were taken during that testing, revealing the six new positives, she said.
Of the Lake County residents connected to the church who tested positive, Doohan said one of them has been hospitalized in Ukiah Valley.
“This outbreak is very concerning, because we know that these individuals have had contacts with other people since contracting the disease,” said Doohan, explaining that the six newly identified positive cases are “now in isolation, but now we have to do the time-consuming and difficult work of contacting all the contacts of those six cases and ordering them into quarantine.”
As for the 15th case identified last week, Doohan said the source of the virus in that case has been determined to be their workplace in Sonoma County.
“We have reason to believe that there is an outbreak there,” said Doohan of the workplace that was not identified beyond it being in Sonoma County, and that 50 Mendocino County residents work there. “We are currently offering them and their contacts free testing. We want to offer testing to all of those individuals who are contacts of any of the cases in both outbreaks.”
As for the testing at Ukiah fairgrounds that will begin Saturday, May 23, Chief Executive Officer Carmel Angelo said the appointment are now “booked out for the next several days,” but that county officials can increase their capacity to meet demand.
As for the outbreak previously identified in Covelo, Doohan said Friday that, “We believe we have contained the outbreak in Covelo.” And while she had expressed concerns earlier that Covelo residents were hesitating to come forward and be tested, she said this week she believes her office was able to convey the message that “Public Health is here to protect the public’s health, because more people came forward to be tested, and no new positives resulted from that testing.
“We want Public Health to be seen as protecting privacy if we are offering free, anonymous testing, regardless of what work they do,” said Doohan, adding that people will only be asked to provide a phone number, not even their name, to be tested.
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May 23, 2020 at 04:36AM
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COVID-19: Six new Mendocino County cases related to Redwood Valley church service - Ukiah Daily Journal
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