OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – During its meeting on Wednesday morning, the Douglas County Board of Health heard details about a local day care outbreak, including a timeline of events and the findings of an investigation.
According to Justin Frederick at the Douglas County Department of Health on March 9, there were ten confirmed cases identified by routine surveillance at the day care center. By March 17, there were 44 confirmed cases, and the health department requested that the center close voluntarily.
“We are seeing rapid spread within the center and identifying issues,” Frederick said.
The day care center closed for five days on March 5 and reopened by March 15.
On March 18, the DCHD told staff and participants to sit in quarantine for ten days to stop the continued dispatch within the center. The next day, the health department confirmed 59 confirmed and 7 probable cases.
On 22 March, all samples sent by the Department of Health for genetic sequencing were identified as the UK variant, B.1.1.7. Families have been advised to adhere to public health mitigation strategies and not send their children to other day care centers.
At the time, the day care center in question chose not to reopen.
Through the epidemiological investigation as well as genomic sequencing of data, the Department of Health found that nearly 50% of day care was affected. The data show a total of 134 total cases: 106 cases have been confirmed and 28 cases are probable.
- 83 were primary cases, which means that a child care worker or staff member received a positive test result and / or onset of symptoms on 22 February. According to the data, 26 of the cases were identified in the staff and 57 were identified in children, and 92% of them were symptomatic.
- 49 were secondary cases, which means that a domestic member of a primary case received a positive test result and / or onset of symptoms on 22 February. One of the cases led to a hospitalization.
- 2 were tertiary cases, meaning a fiancé was linked to the outbreak of child care by genetic sequencing.
- The largest outbreak occurred among children aged 0-5, but the transmission occurred from children to adults, as well as the community that spread during a wedding.
- Through genetic sequencing, 27 cases were identified as the British variant. Twenty of the cases were fully followed up, and seven were partially followed up.
“As we see the B.1.1.7 variant prevalent in the whole community, it shows that a large number of the participants – the young children – have symptoms, and it therefore shows that it is more in line with the fact that being infected as well as showing symptoms, ”Frederick said.
Frederick said it was determined that the child care center was communicating early and that there was limited data on the extent of dispatch in the community. The mitigation of public health could have been better, he said, but noted that it is difficult to deal with this age group.
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Digital Director Gina Dvorak contributed to this report.
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