Three Contra Costa County Fire Protection District firefighters have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19) and are at home under self-quarantine, a district spokesman confirmed Tuesday.
Steve Hill said that 8 district employees people have been tested for COVID-19 with 3 testing positive, 3 testing negatively and 2 others awaiting results. Hill said the positive tests represent just 1 percent of the overall organization of 400-plus employees.
As of March 23, Contra Costa Health Services reported 71 total cases in the county with 1 death. Statewide, the California Department of Public Health reported a total of 1,733 positive cases and 27 deaths as of March 22.
According to Hill, symptoms began to emerge among district employees about 2 weeks ago when 2 district medics were exposed to a known COVID-19-patient – an incident which occurred prior to the District’s implementation of personal protection measures for its first responders.
Since that time, the District has been doing contingency planning on a variety of situations should Contra Costa County see a spike in COVID-19 cases, Hill said.
“At this time, we have no plans to brownout any stations are considering many options in our contingency planning because we do not have a crystal ball like anyone else or know what the surge could be or when it will hit,” he said. “We don’t know if its an Italy, Korea, or something different, so we have been putting plans in place for all of that.”
Hill believes the District is in a good position and believes it will not come to a reduction in service or browning out stations because employees get sick.
“We established really on specific personal protective protocols on specific medical calls for firefighters and AMR. We are confident we are protecting our people at work,” said Hill.
Hill encourages the public to shelter in place and if you are sick with flu like symptoms, do not go get groceries or go out in public — rather have someone else do it for you. He also encourages the public to wash hands frequently and use good judgement with social distancing to curb the virus spread noting it helps not only first responders, but the entire community.
For more information about the COVID-19, visit the California Department of Health.
More testing. Hurry.