Kaiser Permanente Wednesday revealed that 11 of their fully-vaccinated employees, who attended the same wedding in Wisconsin, are now part of the county’s latest COVID-19 cluster.
The Oakland Medical Center said that at least five of those cases have been confirmed as the omicron variant.
Kaiser released a statement saying all have mild symptoms and are isolating at home. Sixteen other people at the hospital may have been exposed – including patients. Thirteen of those people tested negative. The three others are still waiting on their test results.
“There’s no cause for panic at this moment. Probably just a wake-up call that again if you’re going to a large family gathering, large group event during the holidays, to be really careful,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, UCSF infectious disease expert.
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Chin-Hong added that if you’re vaccinated, received the booster then there’s really only one other thing to get before showing up to a holiday party.
“Consider doing additional testing if you’re not really sure what the status of the family members are,” he said. “Doesn’t have to be PCR – just a rapid test will help figure out if someone is transmissible.”
Kaiser Permanente said all the infected employees deal with patients day to day and they showed up to work briefly – before they began showing symptoms. The hospital said they all followed COVID-19 prevention rules while they were at work.
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“Getting vaccinated, getting boosted is still our best weapon,” said Chin-Hong.
