Santa Clara County has now confirmed 60 coronavirus cases at Kaiser Permanente’s San Jose Medical Center and has fined the health care company $43,000 for failing to promptly report the outbreak, the county said Thursday.
The 60 cases have been confirmed since Dec. 27, according to the county, and are believed to be tied to a staff member wearing an inflatable Christmas tree costume in the facility’s emergency department on Christmas Day.
The costume’s fan likely blew coronavirus particles into the facility, which a hospital official characterized on Monday as “completely innocent and quite accidental.” The staff member had no symptoms at the time.
At least one death has been confirmed among the 60 cases, according to a spokesperson for Kaiser. The company did not identify the emergency department employee who died, out of respect for their family.
In addition to the outbreak, Kaiser is on the hook for 43 violations of the county’s health order because it failed to promptly report the first 43 positive tests that were confirmed between Dec. 27, 2020 and New Year’s Day.
County officials were unaware of the outbreak until the company released a media statement on Sunday, according to the county. Kaiser will be fined $1,000 for each violation.
“Kaiser is responsible for complying with all applicable public health orders and work safety regulations, including timely reporting of cases and all required follow-up,” the county said in a statement.
“We have received the county notice and are reviewing it in order to respond by the county’s deadline,” Kaiser Permanente said in a statement.
County officials also confirmed that the cause of the outbreak was not the new coronavirus mutation that originated in the United Kingdom.
gavin won’t pass up a chance to steal more money for himself
yeah
thats the way to gain compliance
just like fining the refineries 100k for 24 violations
i am sure they are without words and fearing the establishment
seeing how their not going to eat for a week ….not
Why is Kaiser and the media still lying about how people became infected?
All kinds of money being made off by this hoax. Pitiful.
Claim two additional patients are COVID patients and get the $40k from the government themselves. It’s a huge circle and a waste of time.
Only a $43k fine? A major healthcare company that fails to report a covid outbreak at their center should be fined significantly. Shame on them.
The administrators who perpetrated that silence should be fired.
So, while we’re all out at Costco, Safeway, Target, Best Buy etc., wearing our cheap, breath through bandanas and homemade blingy masks, 60 people at a hospital, all with the best PPE that money can buy, full N95 and higher rated masks and respirators, all contract the Covid from – THIN AIR.
Can we please quit with the stupid masks now? You’ve been lied to, and this proves it once again how effective they are. *ZERO
The droplets can get into your eyes and in turn infect someone. The best defense is N95 AND a face shield and even with that nothing is 100%.
The masks/coverings do help to lessen the spread of droplets from coughing or sneezing whether someone believes it or not. You can’t honestly say that they provide ‘ZERO’ protection.
Long before this nightmare pandemic if you went into a Dr’s office or Urgent care and had a cough or fever you were told to put a mask on in the waiting room.
Charlie, I did include an asterisk. So, in the case of that one in a million chance that one of the covid particles gets sidetracked by a mask….
No; this demonstrates exactly why masks should be worn.
The primary role of the mask is to prevent YOU from spreading droplets that infect ME.
The secondary (and less effective) role of masking is to protect me from getting infected by your droplets.
The “tree” is an extreme case of an unmasked infected person, not just sneezing, but blowing infections CONSTANTLY (e.g. not just one sneeze) over a large area.
Wear a damn mask!
Sorry, masks DO NOT stop nano particles.
You people who always claim “because science”…….need to look at what the science really says.
The person in the tree had a mask on. So you’re saying there were other hot gasses being past somehow?
80% of those who got covid wore a mask per the CDC
remember -can you provide a link to your source? That sounds incredible.
Commonesnsor is 100% right, the low quality masks are a huge problem. Kn95s and the Korean equivalent are like $1 to $3 a unit and you can buy as many as you like.
Put on a REAL RESPIRATOR if you really give a damn.
The 80% who had a mask on were 99% likely not wearing a respirator.
Funny college football teams and other sports have outbreaks and they are not fined. It seems strange to me when someone is infected or hurt it is always the state that gets the money instead of those actually affected.
College football teams are not responsible for saving the lives of the community.
The Spartans were my hometown favorite college team this season. BUT…I think getting totally embarrassed on national TV in a blow out game after a perfect season is a fitting penalty for them to pay.
Never have trusted Kaiser and their “THRIVE” jive! Too many botched diagnoses, and botched operations. No rhyme or reason to their charges. I wish to heck they’d stop sending me solicitations in the mail! I wouldn’t let them touch me. (just one man’s opinion ??)
brilliant quote from above
that states the mindset of the democrat politicians
It seems strange to me when someone is infected or hurt it is always the state that gets the money instead of those actually affected.
not really a boom
but still a great quote so many seem not to acknowledge
so again the question
how has voting dem helped you or your kids ???
please inform us of your wisdom to have us shackled by the state
how does this help us
A better use of county’s time would be an investigation into level of protection PPE (personal protective equipment) employees were wearing.
Picked up prescription at a hospital other day and employees were not wearing N95 masks. From number of people sickened from that single incident, wonder if ER personnel were wearing N95 masks at time of exposure.
An N95 mask is capable of filtering out 95% of virus sized particles.
One micron is 1/1000 mm or 1/25,000 of an inch.
0.3 to 1 micron = Tobacco smoke
“… coronavirus is about 0.12 microns in diameter and N95 (masks) protect down to 0.1 microns, with 95% efficiency, …”
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/covid-19-mayo-clinic-expert-answers-questions-about-masks-after-cdc-updates-its-recommendation/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9080597/Cloth-masks-NOT-stop-spread-COVID-19-without-social-distancing.html
IF non N95 masks worked then shouldn’t infection rate have been steadily been going down ? ? ? ? ?
Look at graphs at end of page,
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/california/
i hear kaiser holds internal meetings where white people are told to shut up and let the blacks speak
The answer to both of these comments is Obama caused these things to happen,and the country to unravel
Kaiser should be sued for not changing the prices of their health care costs when they decided to not allow people 100% access to the medical services they paid for during the pandemic. Example: patients were not allowed to be seen by doctors, or make certain medical appointments that were covered in the insurance premiums that were paid for by patients. I have yet to hear anyone mention this. Auto insurers jumped on this right away with their pathetic 100 dollar rebates since people weren’t driving anymore. Yet Kaiser has not offered anything! Also Kaiser thinks that their admin workers that are still getting paid to work from home that have Zero contact with patients deserve to get vaccines over special needs children, and small doctors clinics that are face to face with immunocompromised patients. Why do your admin workers that don’t even see patients need the vaccine first Kaiser?!
Amen (not awomen as that would be sign of ignorance on the part of the speaker LOL) @M, Obama planted this race bomb and now the left and dems are using it get total control and so have become the monster they claimed Trump was.
#NoReparationsUnlessThereIsALivingSlave
#GodBlessTrump
#GDNancy
#RecallGavinNewsom
I wouldn’t send my dog to Kaiser. I have a friend whose son is a Kaiser ER doctor and he told her to stay away. (in Cali but not Claycord)