SAN JOSE – The outbreak of the Christmas coronavirus in Kaiser Permanente San Jose continued to spread on Tuesday – and hospital workers are not the only ones getting sick.
For the first time, 15 patients were added to the growing list of people infected on Tuesday after an employee walked through the emergency department in an inflatable tree costume. December 25 was a super-distributor, the Department of Public Health in Santa Clara County announced.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases also rose to 77 among Kaiser employees on Tuesday, up from 60 last week, the country said. One employee, a receptionist, died a week or so after Christmas, though Kaiser has not yet said exactly.
What the new numbers announced on Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente would only say that “we are trying to validate the numbers provided by the country.”
The news comes after the Kaiser province fined $ 43,000 last week for failing to immediately notify officials of the original 43 cases it announced more than a week later – a $ 1,000 for each case.
Several agencies are investigating the outbreak, including the Department of Public Health and Cal / OSHA and Santa Clara County. In a news release in early January, Kaiser suggested that a well-meaning employee could spread the joy. The woman in the costume showed no symptoms at the time, but tested positive shortly thereafter.
Experts in Coronavirus say it is possible that the person in the costume could have been an ignorant superspreader – most people are at their most contagious before showing symptoms, and the fan in the inflatable costume could have easily released and spread the virus.
But because the hospital staff have to wear masks and some workers who started their shifts later in the day also get sick, there are still many questions about whether there could have been another source of the outbreak.
One patient who spoke to this news organization said she was discharged from the emergency department on December 24, a day before the costumed woman made her appearance. But she also tested positive for the virus and is convinced she was infected with Kaiser.