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An worker working the Christmas shift at Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center has died after falling sick with COVID-19. The employee was considered one of no less than 43 employees members who examined optimistic for the coronavirus in latest days, an outbreak presumably linked to employees member who wore an inflatable vacation costume to elevate spirits.
The employees member who appeared briefly within the emergency division Christmas Day wore an air-powered, holiday-themed costume, based on a hospital govt. KNTV-TV, the San Jose NBC station that first reported the outbreak, reported that the costume was an inflatable Christmas tree.
Inflatable costumes are sometimes battery-powered and use a fan to maintain the costume hyped up. But such a fan may also trigger virus particles to journey a lot farther in a room.
KNTV-TV reported that the one that died was a girl who labored as a registration clerk within the emergency division.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by this terrible loss. We are providing support to our employees during this difficult time,” stated a press release issued by the hospital late Sunday.
In a press release Saturday, Irene Chavez, senior vp and space supervisor of Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center, stated officers had been investigating whether or not the costume contributed to the outbreak.
“Any exposure, if it occurred, would have been completely innocent, and quite accidental, as the individual [wearing the costume] had no COVID symptoms and only sought to lift the spirits of those around them during what is a very stressful time,” Chavez stated.
“If anything, this should serve as a very real reminder that the virus is widespread, and often without symptoms, and we must all be vigilant,” Chavez stated.
It was not instantly clear whether or not the individual sporting the costume later examined optimistic for the coronavirus.
Chavez stated the hospital will now not permit air-powered costumes at its amenities and are taking steps to bolster security precautions amongst employees, together with no gatherings in break rooms, no sharing of meals and drinks and sporting of masks always.
The extremely contagious coronavirus often spreads by way of droplets sprayed out from an individual’s mouth and nostril, reminiscent of by way of respiration, speaking, coughing and sneezing, and often solely lands six ft or so from an individual earlier than falling to the bottom. People will be extremely contagious with the virus even with out exhibiting any indicators of sickness.
Strong drafts of air might help the coronavirus infect different individuals. In one such case within the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou, a pre-symptomatic one that had simply returned from Wuhan — the primary epicenter of the worldwide pandemic — was consuming lunch at a restaurant with household. Scientists concluded that that individual contaminated two different households sitting at neighboring tables about three ft away; they think that contaminated droplets from the index affected person hitched a experience on air flows powered by an air-conditioning system.
Located within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose is the biggest metropolis in Santa Clara County, Northern California’s most populous county, whose hospitals are affected by extreme overcrowding in its worst surge of the pandemic. On New Year’s Day, 97% of Santa Clara County’s customary capability of ICU beds had been occupied.
Santa Clara, dwelling to almost 2 million individuals, has the worst fee of coronavirus instances and deaths previously week of any county within the Bay Area, based on a Times evaluation. It recorded greater than 74,000 coronavirus instances and greater than 740 COVID-19 deaths.
Last week, county officers stated hospitals had been stretched to the restrict, with 50 to 60 sufferers every day caught in emergency rooms ready for a mattress.
Often, the one means a affected person will be moved into an ICU mattress is as a result of a COVID-19 affected person has died, stated Dr. Marco Randazzo, an emergency room doctor at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose and St. Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy.
Every single one of many ICU beds at St. Louise Regional Hospital is full, and sufferers are actually in surge beds, Gloria de la Merced, the hospital’s chief working officer, stated final week. “This level of hospitalizations has never happened during my career,” she stated. “If we go beyond the surge capacity, everyone will be affected — more people in our community will know someone who died.”
Across Santa Clara County, the every day coronavirus case fee is greater than 10 instances what it was Oct. 30. “What we are seeing now is not normal,” Dr. Ahmad Kamal, director of well being preparedness for Santa Clara County, stated final week.
“This has been the state of the pandemic for the last several weeks, and it is showing no signs of letting up,” Kamal stated.
Kamal pleaded with the general public to maintain on sporting masks, staying socially distant and canceling gatherings.
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