One Dead After Inflatable Christmas Costume Suspected in Hospital’s Coronavirus Outbreak
‘WONDERFUL WOMAN’
It was reported last week that 43 staffers at a California hospital were infected with COVID-19 in an outbreak that may have been caused by an air-powered, inflatable Christmas costume. Now Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Jose has confirmed the terrible news that an employee has died as a result of complications from COVID-19. According to NBC Bay Area, the woman who died was a registration clerk in the emergency department, and was working on Christmas Day when a staff member appeared in that department wearing an air-powered Christmas-themed costume. The hospital is investigating whether its outbreak was caused by that costume spraying droplets around the hospital or for another reason. In the meantime, the hospital has banned air-powered costumes. The woman’s colleagues said she was an “absolutely wonderful woman.”