California’s first instance of community spread of the novel coronavirus occurred in a nail salon, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a Thursday briefing.
In response to a question about why churches and nail salons are not among the services that will be allowed to operate in the second stage of reopening, Newsom said he was “very worried” about salons.
“Let me be specific now to nail salons,” Newsom said. “This whole thing started in the state of California — the first community spread — in a nail salon. … I’m very worried about that.”
He added later, “Right now, all of our health indicators and health directives that I receive from health directors across the state put some red flags in that space.”
It is not clear when or where the community transmission Newsom referred to took place. His office did not respond to a request for more details, including how the coronavirus had been traced to the salon and whether there were any associated infections.
On February 26, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a woman in Solano County appeared to have contracted the coronavirus from an unknown source, marking what public health officials believed at the time was the first case of community transmission of the virus in the U.S.
Public health experts now believe that the virus was likely spreading in the Bay Area at least several weeks before then. A woman who died in Santa Clara County on Feb. 6 was recently confirmed to have been infected with the virus and is now believed to be the first U.S. death from COVID-19.
That woman — 57-year-old San Jose resident Patricia Dowd — did not have known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual, county health officials said, meaning that she was presumably exposed somewhere in the wider community.
Asked about Newsom’s comments Thursday, Santa Clara County Deputy Executive David Campos said that “as far as we know the case he was referring to was not ours.”
“We assume he’s speaking about a Solano County case not a Santa Clara County case,” he added.
The Solano County Public Health Department did not respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story.
