A senior health official in a Vancouver hospital system said he does not know how COVID-19 spread from one patient to another 29 people, including 18 additional patients, and the hospital cannot rule out a more transmissible form of the coronavirus.
The cause of the December outbreak at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center remains under investigation. But Dr. Lawrence Neville, chief medical center at the PeaceHealth Columbia Network, said on Monday that the Vancouver hospital’s COVID-19 group could be traced back to a patient who initially tested negative on admission to the hospital just to test positive days. after.
“It is an unfortunate anomaly that this has occurred,” said Neville during a news conference with reporters.
Patients admitted and tested negative for the virus are not required to wear masks, but are encouraged to do so, Neville said, and the patient in question was wearing a mask.
It is not clear how many of the other infected patients were not wearing masks, but Neville said the hospital is “doubling” and stepping up its efforts around mask compliance. Neville did not say specifically what this implies, and it does not appear that the masks would be necessary for all patients. Likewise, vaccines are not required for employees.
He said the outbreak is emblematic of how prevalent the disease is in Vancouver and the surrounding community. On Monday, Clark County reported 976 active cases and 13,692 known cases during the pandemic. Neville said PeaceHealth’s Vancouver hospital has an active registry of 56 COVID patients, with eight of them receiving intensive care.
The hospital became aware on December 27 of the positive test for the patient at the center of the outbreak. The next day, two other patients in the medical ward were asymptomatic, but tested positive for the virus. Employees closed the ward for all new patients a day later and each positive COVID patient was transferred to a different ward.
“We tested all patients in the hospital just to make sure the problem was isolated in this unit,” said Neville, “and it was.”
Initial figures released by the hospital last week indicated that 30 patients tested positive, but Neville said the information was not accurate and that the count included patients and staff.
On Monday, 56 health professionals remained in quarantine as a precautionary measure due to the 11 confirmed cases among employees. Neville said that some of the infected workers had already received their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
PeaceHealth said it sent samples on Monday to determine whether COVID-19 is a mutant form of the virus, which has been seen in several states and has led the UK to issue a new wave of blockages.
Neville said that “it is not impossible” that the outbreak could be linked to this more transmissible form of the virus, but said that the same strategies for preventing hand washing, personal protective equipment and limited social interactions apply.
He said the results will not be known for another 10 to 14 days in genomic sequencing to see if Washington has the fast-spreading COVID variant documented elsewhere.
The initial patient who first tested negative was hospitalized for a medical need, said Neville, not for elective surgery. The hospital has since further restricted its surgeries and closed the infirmary for deep cleaning as of January 1.
Neville said the 19 infected patients and 11 workers are “doing well,” saying that he did not know of anyone in that cluster being admitted to the ICU until Sunday.
Oregon has had its share of workplace outbreaks in hospitals, including 29 cases at Providence Portland Medical Center, with the most recent case on Christmas Day. Other workplace outbreaks at medical centers in Oregon include Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg (61), McKenzie Willamette Medical Center in Springfield (33) and others.
– Andrew Theen; [email protected]; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen