OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – During its meeting Wednesday morning, the Douglas County Board of Health heard details of a local childcare outbreak, including a timeline of events and the findings of an investigation.
According to Justin Frederick of the Douglas County Health Department on March 9, 10 confirmed cases had been identified in the daycare center through routine surveillance. On March 17, there were 44 confirmed cases and the health department requested that the center be closed voluntarily.
“We saw a rapid spread within the center and identification of cases,” said Frederick.
The daycare center was closed for nine days on March 5 and reopened on March 15.
On March 18, the DCHD told staff and attendees to remain in quarantine for 10 days to halt the ongoing transmission within the center. The next day, the health department had identified 59 confirmed and 7 probable cases.
On March 22, all specimens sent by the health department for genetic sequencing were identified as the British variant, B.1.1.7. Families were advised to adhere to public health mitigation strategies and not send their children to other daycare centers.
At that time, the nursery in question chose not to reopen.
Through the epidemiological investigation and through genomic sequencing data, the health department found that nearly 50% of childcare facilities were affected. The data shows a total of 134 cases: 106 confirmed cases and 28 probable cases.
- 83 were primary cases, meaning that a daycare participant or staff member received a positive test result and / or the onset of symptoms on or after February 22. According to the data, 26 of those cases were identified in the staff and 57 were identified in children, and 92% of them were symptomatic.
- 49 were secondary cases, meaning that a primary case household member got a positive test result and / or the onset of symptoms on or after February 22. One such case resulted in hospitalization.
- 2 were tertiary cases, meaning that a wedding attendee was genetically sequenced associated with the childcare outbreak.
- The largest outbreak occurred in children aged 0-5, but transmission occurred from children to adults and also from the community, with spillovers occurring at a wedding.
- Genetic sequence testing identified 27 cases as the British variant. Twenty cases were fully sequenced and seven were partially sequenced.
“Since we see that the B.1.1.7 variant is prevalent across the community, this shows that a large number of those visitors – who are young children – have symptoms, so it shows that it is consistent with a larger likely to be infected and show symptoms, ”said Frederick.
Frederick said there was a lack of early communication from the childcare center and limited data on the level of transmission of variants in the community. The public health limitation could have been better, he said, but noted that masking with this age group is difficult.
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Digital Director Gina Dvorak contributed to this report.
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