SAN JOSE – The Christmas Day coronavirus outbreak at Kaiser Permanente San Jose continued to spread Tuesday – and hospital workers aren’t the only ones getting sick.
For the first time on Tuesday, 15 patients were added to the growing list of infected people after an emergency department employee snuck in an inflatable tree suit. Dec. 25 may have been a super spreader, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department announced.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases also rose among Kaiser employees to 77 on Tuesday, from 60 last week, the province said. An employee, a receptionist, died about a week after Christmas, although Kaiser did not say exactly when.
When it came to the new numbers released Tuesday, Kaiser Permanente just said that “we are trying to validate the numbers that the county has provided.”
The news comes after Kaiser County last week fined $ 43,000 for failing to immediately notify officials of the original 43 cases it made public more than a week later – with a $ 43,000 fine for each case. 1,000 was imposed.
Several agencies are investigating the outbreak, including the State Department of Public Health and Cal / OSHA and Santa Clara County. In a press release in early January, Kaiser suggested that a well-meaning employee who distributed the holidays may have been the source. The woman in the costume showed no symptoms at the time, but tested positive shortly after.
Coronavirus experts say it’s possible the person in the costume could have been an unwitting super spreader – most people are most contagious before showing symptoms, and the ventilator in the inflatable costume could have easily vented and spread the virus.
But since hospital staff had to wear masks and some employees who started their shifts later that day also fell ill, many questions remain as to whether there could have been some other source of the outbreak.
A patient speaking to this news organization said she had been released from the emergency department on Dec. 24, the day before the costumed woman made her appearance. But she also tested positive for the virus and is convinced she got infected at Kaiser.