Hospital fined $43,000 after COVID outbreak linked to inflatable costume in California

A California hospital hit by a COVID-19 outbreak after an employee wore an inflatable holiday costume on Christmas now faces a $43,000 fine, health officials say.

Santa Clara County officials have fined Kaiser Permanente San Jose $43,000 for failing to initially report the outbreak as required, KPIX reported.

County officials say they learned of the outbreak from a hospital press release, according to the station. The hospital was fined $1,000 for each of the initial 43 cases.

At least 60 hospital workers have been infected and one has died since an employee dressed in an inflatable, air-powered Christmas tree costume visited the emergency department Dec. 25, The Mercury News reported.

A fan inside the costume may have spread the virus, sparking the outbreak, according to the publication.

“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,” said Irene Chavez, hospital senior vice president, in a statement, KGO reported.

“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 said, according to the station.

The first COVID-19 cases were reported Dec. 27, KGO reported. The speed of the infections has raised questions about the costume’s connection to the outbreak.

“An important question to figure out is who was the index case,” said Linsey Marr, an aerosols expert and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The index case is the person who initially spread the virus, according to the publication. If it was the person in the costume, “it’s possible the fan could have helped spread the aerosols,” Marr said.

“It’s also entirely possible the costume was just a red herring,” Marr told the Los Angeles Times.

Some also have questioned how an outbreak could occur in a hospital with workers clothed in protective gear and starting to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.

Doctors and nurses may have simply let down their guard for a moment, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease expert at University of California, San Francisco, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

“We’re so starved of joy — you see something like that and you kind of forget you’re in COVID time, even in the emergency department,” Chin-Hong said, the publication reported.

While some hospital workers have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, they have not received a second dose needed for full effectiveness, KNTV reported. Vaccines also do not provide a 100% guarantee against infection, though the COVID-19 vaccines are considered highly effective, hospital officials say.

The hospital is undergoing a deep cleaning and air-powered costumes have been banned, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The state of California has previously fined Kaiser Permanente San Jose more than $85,000 for other coronavirus-related violations in 2020, KTVU reported.

More than 89 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 1.9 million deaths as of Jan. 10, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 22 million confirmed cases with more than 372,000 deaths.

This story was originally published January 10, 2021 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Hospital fined $43,000 after COVID outbreak linked to inflatable costume in California."