COSTCO CORONA VIRUS OUTBREAK ZIP

Press play to see the number of outbreaks in San Diego County change from the start of the pandemic to the end of November. And you can’t do that when you have 2,000 cases a day.' 'But if nine people report they happened to be in a Walmart in Chula Vista within a 14-day window because they were grocery shopping, you’d have to narrow it down to a specific window, say they were all there between 2 and 5 pm on a Wednesday. 'If it’s nine staff members all working in the kitchen together and you have nine people test positive within a 14 day window, my initial assumption would be that those are connected,' she said. If three people mention the same location within a 14 day period, it's labeled as an outbreak.īut Rebecca Fielding-Miller, an epidemiologist at UC San Diego, said given the current case surge, it would be extremely difficult for contact tracers to do all the detailed interviews required to accurately pinpoint the risk someone has of catching the virus in a specific location. 'They may mention places they worked, shopped, visited, went to church, attended a gathering, etc.' 'We interview all cases about their activities during the two weeks prior to their illness onset,' the county's website says. When someone tests positive for COVID-19, they get a call from a case investigator. KPBS and the other news organizations are appealing that decision.Ī description on the county’s website details how outbreaks are identified. Last month, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the county. However, businesses and other organizations would be breaking the law if they failed to report their outbreaks to the county. There's no way for the county to find out if a mom and pop shop on El Cajon Boulevard had an outbreak if they don't disclose it.'

'The county depends on voluntary disclosures to combat the pandemic here. 'Without voluntary disclosures, the county can't do the necessary contact tracing,' Cooley said. The news organizations have pointed out that other jurisdictions, including Los Angeles County and the state of Oregon, make their outbreak information public.ĭuring an October hearing in the case, county lawyer John Cooley said the county’s contact tracing program 'would break down' if more detailed outbreak information were made public. In August, Voice of San Diego, KPBS and The San Diego Union-Tribune sued the county under the California Public Records Act for all of its outbreak location records. News organizations and other public interest groups have opposed the county, arguing that public health and the public interest is best served when people have the public health records of outbreak locations at their disposal. Officials also argue that businesses and other organizations would not report outbreaks to the county if they were made public. The KPBS analysis of November outbreaks shows they accounted for about 8% of all cases during the month. In the past officials have said it is not important for the public to know detailed information about community outbreaks because they only account for about 4% of all COVID-19 cases in the county.

– Seven casinos in the county have had outbreaks with a combined case count of more than 638.

COSTCO CORONA VIRUS OUTBREAK ZIP

– At least 86 outbreaks happened in the Pacific Beach and Gaslamp ZIP codes, two of the county’s biggest party spots. In November, outbreaks at houses of worship had a combined case count of at least 187, almost half of those coming from Awaken Church. – At least 30 outbreaks have occurred at religious organizations since March. – At least 136 outbreaks occurred in five lower income ZIP codes in East and South County, where many essential workers live. – At least 252 outbreaks occurred in nursing homes, jails, rehab facilities and shelters. The November records show that most of the outbreaks are small-fewer than 10 cases-and they don’t reveal whether employees or patrons were infected.īut the overall records do show you're far more likely to be exposed to an outbreak based on your living circumstances and/or your behavior. The records reviewed by KPBS include all outbreak locations during the first nine months of the pandemic, but only specific case counts for the month of November. VIDEO: Here's Where COVID-19 Outbreaks Have Happened In San Diego County

Costco corona virus outbreak