OMAHA, Madness (WOWT) – At its meeting Wednesday morning, Douglas County Health Council heard details of a local child care outbreak, including a timeline of events and the results of an investigation.
According to Justin Frederick of the Douglas County Department of Health, on March 9, there were 10 confirmed cases identified at the day center by routine surveillance. As of March 17, there were 44 confirmed cases, and the health department has requested the voluntary closure of the center.
“I could see the rapid spread in the center and the identification of cases,” Frederick said.
The garden was closed on March 5 for nine days, reopening until March 15.
On March 18, DCHD told staff and participants to quarantine for 10 days to stop the ongoing transmission at the center. The next day, the health department identified 59 confirmed and 7 probable cases.
On 22 March, all specimens sent by the health department for genetic sequencing were identified as the UK variant, B.1.1.7. Families were advised to adhere to public health mitigation strategies and not to send their children to other care centers.
At that time, the garden in question chose not to reopen.
Through epidemiological investigation, as well as genomic sequencing data, the health department found that almost 50% of child care was affected. The data show a total of 134 cases in total: 106 were confirmed and 28 were probable cases.
- 83 were primary cases, meaning that a childcare participant or staff member received a positive test result and / or symptoms on or after February 22nd. According to the data, 26 of these cases were identified in staff and 57 were identified in children and 92% of them were symptomatic.
- 49 were secondary cases, which means that a household member of a primary case received a positive test result and / or the onset of symptoms on or after February 22. One of these cases led to hospitalization.
- 2 were tertiary cases, ie a participant in the wedding related to the focus of child care through genetic sequencing.
- The biggest outbreak occurred among children aged 0-5 years, but the transmission took place from children to adults, as well as the spread of the community, with the widespread spread at a wedding.
- By testing genetic sequencing, 27 cases were identified as the UK variant. Twenty of the cases were completely sequenced, and seven were partially sequenced.
“As we see that variant B.1.1.7 is prevalent throughout the community, this shows that a large number of participants – those young children – have symptoms, so it shows that it is consistent with the fact that they are more likely to be infected and to show symptoms, “said Frederick.
Frederick said it was established that there was a lack of early communication from the child care center and limited data on the level of transmission of variants in the community. Public health mitigation could have been better, he said, but noted that masking with this age group is difficult.
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Digital director Gina Dvorak contributed to this report.
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