Additional Coronavirus Cases Confirmed In LA County, OC

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The number of confirmed coronavirus, or COVID-19 , cases in Los Angeles County and Orange County rose by one Tuesday the Department of Public Health announced.

The individual in Los Angeles County was said to be a resident who returned from Iran and tested positive for the illness.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer, head of the county health department, said the person was taken directly from Los Angeles International Airport to a medical facility on Monday, but may now be in isolation at home.

No other details about the patient were released.

The new case brings a total of 17 coronavirus cases being overseen by the county Department of Public Health in L.A. county.

Also Tuesday, a fifth person in Orange County tested positive for the virus, Orange County Health Care Agency Director Richard Sanchez told the county's Board of Supervisors.

So far, there are two confirmed cases and three "presumptive cases," in the county.  Four of the people were said to have contracted the virus through travel-related activities, and one got sick from "person-to-person" contact with someone who was ill.

On Monday, Long Beach health officials announced that preliminary tests indicated that two men and a woman have contracted coronavirus.

In addition to the new case announced in L.A. County Tuesday, the other patients being monitored by the county Department of Public Health are:

• Eight people who were in a travel group to northern Italy;
• Two contract employees who were conducting coronavirus medical screenings of arriving passengers at Los Angeles International Airport
• Two relatives of a person who lives outside the county and was also confirmed with the virus
• A person who attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference in Washington, D.C.
• A person with a known history of travel to Japan
• A person who contracted the illness from an unknown source becoming the county's first case of "community transmission" of the disease.
• A traveler from the area of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. That person, the county's first patient, has since recovered.

The San Bernardino County Public Health Officer and the Board of Supervisors declared a local health emergency Tuesday to help ensure county government and the public are prepared for the possibility that COVID-19 will appear within the county. No cases had yet been confirmed in the county.

A local health emergency was also declared in Riverside County by Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser, citing the county's first locally acquired case of coronavirus that was announced Saturday.

So far, there have been 28 deaths from coronavirus in the U.S. and more than 4,000 deaths worldwide.

(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)