At least 43 Kaiser Permanente San Jose Emergency Department employees tested positive for COVID-19 last week. The unlikely culprit of the explosive outbreak? An inflatable Christmas costume.
COVID-19 can last a long time on many surfaces, particularly porous or textured ones like fabrics and papers. (Although, as we are learning: certain variants of the coronavirus can live for hours or days outside the body, depending on the strain.) But the most common carrier for COVID-19 remains the airborne respiratory droplets – so you can supposing that allowing someone to wear an air-powered vacation costume in an emergency could be a recipe for disaster.
“A staff member appeared briefly in the emergency department on December 25 wearing an air-powered costume,” Irene Chavez, senior vice president and area manager at Kaiser’s San Jose Medical Center, told the Chronicle. “Any exposure, had it occurred, would have been completely innocent and quite accidental, since the individual had no symptoms of COVID and just sought to lift the spirits of those around him during a very stressful period.”
Last week, it was confirmed that 43 South Bay emergency room workers tested positive for the new respiratory disease. Among those infected are doctors, nurses, technicians and medical assistants on site. As Chavez notes, individuals with confirmed positive results – as well as those who may have had contact with the disease – were asked to follow strict isolation protocols.
Fortunately, as Kaiser Permanente health professionals are offered weekly tests of COVID-19, the outbreak appears to have been quickly recognized and allowed several containment strategies to take action in a timely manner; this was not so much the case for qualified nursing facilities in Orinda and Laguna Honda during the childhood of the pandemic.
“All of our healthcare professionals will receive weekly tests for COVID-19 and rapid tests for anyone with symptoms or exposure to a person with COVID-19,” continued Chavez. “Masks are necessary in all areas and we are further reconfiguring our common processes and spaces, such as employee rest rooms, to limit any employee meeting.”
Suffice it to say that she also added that they will no longer allow air-powered fantasies in the building (for obvious reasons).
According to Chávez, about 40,000 Kaiser Permanente health professionals in the bay area received coronavirus vaccines, with additional launches – including the second round of doses reaching Santa Clara County health workers who are working at the epicenter COVID -19 from the region – in the future.
Although Moderna, the only pharmaceutical company authorized to distribute its vaccine for “emergency use” by the FDA, requires that its vaccine be administered in two doses, studies show that even a single dose proves to be quite effective.
Related: Orinda’s nursing home now has 49 COVID cases; Laguna Honda has 16 [April of 2020]
New outbreak in Honda Lagoon infects 50 people and, counting, kills 3 elderly
Teachers, police and food workers may be the next to receive the COVID vaccine in California
Image: Courtesy of Getty Images via Maksim Tkachenko