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Inflatable Christmas Costume May Have Spread Coronavirus To 44 Hospital Workers

A California hospital is battling a coronavirus outbreak that’s infected at least 44 people in the emergency room ― including one who died of complications due to the infection ― and it may have been due in part to an inflatable Christmas tree costume.

According to NBC Bay Area, the costume used at the Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center was powered by a fan that may have spread droplets around the emergency room on Dec. 25.

“Any exposure, if it occurred, would have been completely innocent, and quite accidental, as the individual had no COVID symptoms and only sought to lift the spirits of those around them during what is a very stressful time,” a hospital spokesperson told local CBS station KPIX.

The New York Times reported that staffers who were present began testing positive on Dec. 27. It’s unknown if any patients were infected by the encounter; however, air-powered costumes are now banned in the facility, the newspaper reported.

One expert told The San Francisco Chronicle that the person inside the costume would not have to be infected to spread the virus ― only someone nearby, whose droplets could be spread by the fan.

“They’re just acting as the mover of air in a huge way,” UCSF infectious disease expert Peter Chin-Hong told the paper. “It’s like a fan that’s kind of multidirectional and random.”

The hospital remains open and the ER is undergoing a deep cleaning.

Santa Clara County, where the hospital is located, currently has 691 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, and just 10 percent of ICU beds available, including surge capacity.

[huffpost.com]

LiterateHiker 9 Jan 4
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5 comments

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1

Guy goes in to a sex shop and buys a blow up Doll. Takes it home and blows it up. But there's a leak somewhere. So he takes it back to the sex shop and says that he wants his money back because the Blow up doll keeps going down on him. The shop assistant say, if I knew it did that I would have charged you more for it

1

Shit Happens. Nobody's fault this one

1

That is so unfortunate ,And they are under so much stress that something like that slips there mind when thye are trying to feel good about themselves

1

They should have known better. Really. These are recent results s from my home county outside of Syracuse, NY. Spread from Christmas parties now showing up in tests

1

You would think that anything that moves air in an enclosed area would be suspect by now

The operative word there is "think". If anything is being made abundantly obvious by the reactions to this pandemic, it is that most people don't.

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