A patient admitted to a Kaiser hospital in South Sacramento has tested negative for the Ebola virus, said Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in a brief press conference Thursday evening.
Chapman said the results came in from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier in the day. Chapman, Kaiser officials and Sacramento County health officials refused to answer other questions about the patient, citing privacy laws.
Earlier this week, CDPH called the patient "low risk" and said the testing was occurring out of an "abundance of caution." Chapman said CDPH and Kaiser made the determination that the patient was low risk by following established CDC assessment tools, available to any health care worker.
Chapman stressed that Ebola is "a very difficult infection to spread." It does not spread through air, food or water. The virus can only be spread through direct physical contact with an infected person's bodily fluid, including blood and sweat.
There are no reported cases of Ebola in California. In West Africa, the disease has killed 1,350 people.