Church camp outbreak includes delta variant

At least 57 people have tested positive for COVID-19 — some with the new delta variant — and 90 others have self-reported positive tests but have yet to be examined by health officials after an outbreak at a church camp held in Giddings, about 55 miles east of Austin.

The camp was sponsored late last month by Clear Creek Community Church, an interdenominational congregation in League City in Galveston County. About 450 people attended, most of them teenagers.

Unvaccinated Texans who might come in contact with any of the campgoers or their families “should be on high alert,” Galveston County Health Authority Philip Keiser said Tuesday.

“We have a pocket of people who are unvaccinated or who have not gotten infected, and they are totally vulnerable to this infection,” said Keiser, an infectious disease expert. “And it is spreading incredibly fast.”

On Tuesday, the Galveston County Health District reported at least three cases of the delta variant among the 57 confirmed cases associated with the camp.

Keiser said he would not be surprised if the number infected surpasses 250 as the virus spreads and testing continues. Although the delta variant accounts for about one in four cases nationally, Keiser said he expects the highly contagious variant to account for most, if not all, of the cases tied to the camp because they likely originated from the same source.

The delta variant is roughly 60 percent more contagious than the original strain of COVID-19, according to Harvard University researcher Dr. David Edwards.

Masks not required

Camp attendees were from Clear Creek’s multiple campuses, which Keiser feared could be vectors for transmission.

Galveston health authorities learned of the first infection on June 27, three days after hundreds of campgoers took the nearly two-hour trip via bus to Camp Tejas in Giddings.

Keiser said he does not believe masks were required on the ride to the camp, and photos from the church’s Facebook and Instagram pages show few people wearing masks.

He said he realized by late last week that “we had a big problem,” and health officials began working with the church soon after.

It’s unclear how many of the campers were vaccinated. Of the 57 cases studied by Galveston County authorities so far, six have been “breakthrough cases” — meaning those infected had been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks by the time they contracted the coronavirus.

Clear Creek was the only church whose members were at Camp Tejas at the time of the outbreak, and none of the campers left the site during their stay from June 24 to June 27, Keiser said.

The church announced over the weekend that it has suspended in-person services until July 11.

In a statement, senior pastor Bruce Wesley said Clear Creek has been following safety protocols .

“We are surprised and saddened by this turn of events,” he wrote on the church’s website. “Our hearts break for those infected with the virus. Please pray for a speedy and complete recovery for all of those affected.”

According to its website, Clear Creek made masks at the church optional on May 9. Before that, it had limited gatherings to smalland then medium-sized groups, and required worshipers to register for services.

‘Like kindling’

Keiser said it’s unclear how many campers were fully vaccinated. All but 10 of the cases studied by Galveston County officials involved those who are older than 12 and thus eligible for inoculations.

Keiser said the outbreak should serve as a reminder that safety protocols need to be ramped up in indoor settings or in large groups of people.

Precautions such as maskwearing and social distancing “work until they don’t,” he said. “Once somebody gets inside, it all falls apart, and we’ve seen this happen before.”

Camp Tejas director Paul Biles said Tuesday that the camp, which hosts numerous churches throughout the summer, is monitoring local cases, and has adhered to state guidelines in hosting church members this summer. According to its website, Camp Tejas workers have their temperatures checked daily and staff wears protective equipment when handling food.

“Our greatest defense is prayer,” the camp said.

The outbreak could be “like kindling” for those in the region who are not inoculated, said Susie Welty, who studies contract tracing at the University of California at Berkeley.

She said other outbreaks she has studied have reduced her confidence that those who remain unvaccinated and may have been exposed to the virus will abide by voluntary quarantines, social distancing and mask-wearing.

“You’ll probably have a huge outbreak, and lose some people who aren’t fully vaccinated,” she said. “But hopefully it is a harbinger for people to realize vaccinations really are important.”

Vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-biontech have both been found to prevent hospitalization or death in roughly 90 percent of delta variant cases. Johnson & Johnson announced last week that its one-shot vaccine is about 60 percent effective against the mutation.