Nearly 3,000 Heath Care Workers Have Tested Positive For Covid-19 In California

All across the state of California, over 3,000 health care workers have tested positive for the coronavirus. However, a new report from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that transmission between a patient and doctor is “relatively rare” as long as the doctor, nurse, or any other health care worker has brief contact with the patient and is wearing all the proper protective gear. 

Local health departments in California have reported 2,900 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among health care providers as of the beginning of April, which equates to 10% of all reported cases for the golden state. Nationally speaking, however, almost 10,000 of the positive cases for the coronavirus have been reported by health care workers, which is about 3% of the total number of cases (300,000+). 

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The CDC has also reported that about 67 out of every 100,000 California residents have tested positive for Covid-19. To compare, about 178 out of every 100,000 health care workers in California have tested positive. Like any coronavirus statistic, it’s important to take the number with a grain of salt, as it likely doesn’t represent the full skew of the situation. 

The CDC also reported that health care workers were likely to be exposed during the earlier stages of this pandemic when we didn’t know the full scope of how bad this pandemic would truly get. Other more local situations in California have also been due to poor management of the virus in certain facilities. For example, after four nurses all contracted the virus on the same day at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a whistleblower complaint revealed that the center wasn’t abiding by all the proper guidelines to manage the virus in their workplace. 

“Now, the wearing of masks and protective gear is standard, however, health care facilities should emphasize early recognition and isolation of patients with possible COVID-19 and use of recommended PPE to minimize unprotected, high-risk [health care personnel] exposures and protect the health care workforce,” the CDC said.

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One report from the CDC proved that the earlier stages of this pandemic is when a majority of health care workers were exposed to the virus. In Solano County at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital, one patient exposed 121 workers to the coronavirus, however, only three tested positive. Those three had close and prolonged contact for multiple hours with the patient, and since this was before a full on pandemic was declared, the three women weren’t in all the proper protective gear. 

There were 40 other workers out of the 121 who began exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 as well, however, they ultimately tested negative. Once that patient was transferred to a facility that was more properly prepared for individuals who had the coronavirus, no other workers were infected.

The major take away from this specific case for the CDC is that it’s more difficult than we think for these workers in the health industry to contract Covid-19, but that doesn’t make what they’re doing any less dangerous or heroic. 

“As community transmission has increased, it has become harder to tell exactly where each person gets infected. The Solano County case presented a unique opportunity to study how transmission occurs in a health care setting. The case also highlights the importance of testing. As public health officials look to ease shelter-in-place requirements for the Bay Area, testing will be crucial because it’s the only way to know who has had the virus — and who is still at risk of becoming infected,” [CDC].

It’s important to keep all health care providers in our thoughts during this very difficult time. They’re risking exposure to the virus every day, in order to protect us from further