ADDRESSES OF COVID-19 OUTBREAKS REVEALED
KPBS publishes documents showing where virus spread
Although health officials regularly release information about the number of COVID-19 outbreaks that are being investigated across San Diego County, the specific locations have usually been kept a secret.
Until now.
On Monday, the public media station KPBS published an investigation that revealed the addresses of 1,006 outbreaks that occurred between March and December.
When categorized by location type, senior living and nursing homes account for 214 outbreaks, the highest in the county. One in five outbreaks has been tied to restaurants and bars, and some 205 outbreaks were located at manufacturing companies and other businesses. About 125 outbreaks have been associated with grocery and retail stores, and
more than 40 occurred at medical facilities.
Four outbreaks each have been identified at the Polinsky Children’s Center, a temporary emergency shelter for children, and the Hillcrest Heights Healthcare Center in San Diego nursing home — more than any other locations in the county.
Twelve more locations in cities, including San Diego, El Cajon and Encinitas, have been tied to three outbreaks each. Those places include 10 senior living or nursing homes; Cafe Coyote, a restaurant in Old Town; and Pala Casino Spa & Resort.
In total, seven casinos saw outbreaks, accounting for 638 cases, according to the data. It’s information that tribal governments have repeatedly refused to release. Viejas Casino & Resort and Sycuan Casino & Resort saw the highest case totals at 166 and 155, respectively.
Big-box stores like Target, Walmart and Costco also found themselves on the list regularly.
County officials did not confirm the accuracy of the data, and KPBS did not identify its source.
Epidemiologists cautioned that the list shouldn’t be used to rank which places in the county are safest. Rather, it should serve as a reminder of the kinds of places and the types of behaviors that may result in exposure to the virus.
“All of these identified clusters are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the virus is being transmitted in San Diego County — particularly now since there’s so much transmission occurring,” said Dr. Robert “Chip” Schooley, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Health. “What this list tells us are the types of places and the types of activities in which people engage where they’re more likely to acquire the virus.”
The definition of an outbreak partly depends on where it happens.
In community settings such as restaurants, schools and businesses, an outbreak must consist of at least three COVID-19 cases within a 14day period at the same setting involving people who are from different households or who are not consid
ered close contacts in some other way.
Outbreaks at congregate care settings like shelters and jails are defined as three COVID-19 cases within a 14day period among people who have had contact with at least one other person within the outbreak.
At places like nursing homes and senior care centers, outbreaks only require one laboratory-confirmed case.
Identifying outbreaks is an extension of the county’s contact tracing efforts, and it’s far from a perfect process. Local disease detectives try to ask everyone who tests positive about the things they did in the two weeks before they got sick, but there are lots of reasons why that information might be unreliable, said Dr. Corinne McDaniels-Davidson, director of San Diego State University’s Institute for Public Health.
People may not be able to remember all the places they went, or they may omit things they’re ashamed about. People may leave out locations in an effort to try and protect their place of employment or their place of worship. They may not mention people who would be forced to quarantine should they test positive — a hardship that some workers may feel they can’t afford.
Also, once an outbreak has been declared, that doesn’t always mean everyone included got sick in the same place. It simply means they were at the same place within a 14-day period.
“You can’t assume that every time people are in the same room together that they gave the virus to each other,” Schooley said.
As of Dec. 14, the county had investigated 1,129 outbreaks, accounting for 9,625 cases and 412 deaths. That’s about 11 percent of all local cases and about 35 percent of deaths.
Most of those outbreaks happened in community settings, but most of the deaths stemmed from outbreaks in nursing homes and other congregate care facilities.
Although the county has released a lot of general information about outbreaks, it has refused to release specific locations in most cases, despite the fact that other jurisdictions such as Los Angeles County do so.
Health officials have stated that COVID-19 out
breaks rarely pose an active threat to the public. When the county feels a particular location presents an ongoing risk, they release the name of the location, as they did in the case of Awaken Church.
County officials took the unusual step of announcing that an outbreak had happened at the church last month because contact tracers had not been able to reach everyone who may have been exposed. According to the KPBS investigation, the county identified three separate outbreaks at Awaken Church locations, accounting for 81 cases.
Additionally, the county feels that regularly releasing specific locations of outbreaks could make business owners and others more reluctant to come forward if they do experience an outbreak, making it more difficult for the contact tracers to accurately identify those who were exposed.
“Releasing the names of these locations and the addresses will have a chilling effect on the open communication necessary to ensure the Public Health Officer is able to effectively combat active outbreaks,” county officials said when they denied requests for outbreak locations.
Several media organizations, including KPBS and The San Diego Union-Tribune, have challenged that stance in court. Last month, San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil sided with the county, a ruling that is currently being appealed.