Update: County says 17 people linked to April house party tested positive for Covid-19

Olmsted County Public Health shared new details Friday about a recent house party connected to a coronavirus outbreak.

Health officials said 17 people linked to the mid-April party tested positive for Covid-19. The outbreak was discovered through the county’s contact tracing efforts. There were between 30-50 people present at the party.

In a conference call Friday afternoon, Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs said his team was tipped off about the outbreak by a physician who had seen one of the infected party-goers.

Because the situation was identified early, Briggs said they were able to reach out to individuals who may have come in contact with those who attended the party. Without the early intervention, Briggs said the situation “could have been much worse.”

"We dodged a bullet with any long-term consequences as a result of this outbreak,” said Briggs.

Some people linked to the party got “fairly sick,” Briggs added, though every person who can be traced back to the party has since recovered and is off isolation. No additional cases associated with the cluster have been reported for three weeks.

Still, public health officials said Friday the incident serves as an important reminder of how fast the virus can spread.

“The story of the ‘house party’ demonstrates the highly contagious nature of COVID-19 and the ease of which someone can spread the virus to others,” Olmsted County Public Health wrote in a news release . “It underscores the importance of physical distancing, including avoiding gathering in large groups, to control spread of COVID-19.”

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After a district commissioner publicized the news Thursday afternoon, Olmsted County confirmed a ‘significant number’ of confirmed Covid-19 cases have been traced back to one house party.

District 7 Commissioner Mark Thein published a Facebook post just after noon on Thursday, saying an asymptomatic partygoer infected several others, who then each passed it on to co-workers. 

Thein’s post goes on to cite Olmsted County Public Health’s use of ‘contact tracing’ to determine the source of the cluster of cases. Contact tracing, according to the Mayo Clinic, requires public health officials to reach out to those who came in close contact with a Covid-19 infected patient before the patient could be tested and isolated. The process can go through multiple degrees of separation, identifying who the virus could have traveled to.

Thein originally wrote that ‘most’ of the county’s cases could be traced back to the party in question, a statement which was later edited. Later, Olmsted County released a statement to Med City Beat clarifying that ‘most’ was the wrong choice of words.

“The theme of Commissioner Thein’s post is correct, however some of the details as reported by Commissioner Thein are misleading,” the statement reads. “It is not ‘most’ of the cases, but there was a significant number of individuals impacted.  We will explore the possibility of sharing more detailed information that would not violate individual confidentiality and HIPPA [sic], as this is an important story that demonstrates the importance of social distancing and not attending large gatherings.”

Details regarding when the party occurred, how long it took to identify the party as the center of an outbreak, or how many people could be traced back to the party were not immediately made available. Commissioner Thein told Med City Beat he first heard the news Thursday morning in a video call with Olmsted County Administrator Heidi Welsch.

“I thought it was interesting enough to share as a cautionary tale,” he said.

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.

Cover photo: File / Unsplash