Partygoer jokes about having coronavirus — then sparks outbreak in California

Woman identified through contact tracing methods

A woman who attended a party in California and joked she had the coronavirus, found out she was not joking when she caused an outbreak in Pasadena.

Health officials said the party was attended by multiple members of an extended family as well as their friends, and that guests weren’t wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines.

The woman who has been identified as the “index case” – the first patient in the outbreak identified with the disease – had been coughing and didn’t wear a mask to the party. She apparently joked with other party goers that she had the coronavirus, which turned out to be accurate.

Lisa Derderian, a spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena, told the Los Angeles Times that the woman’s disregard for the city’s stay-at-home order – which has been in effect since March 22, prior to the party – led to others becoming severely ill.

“The aftermath affected several others who became seriously ill because of one person’s negligent and selfish behaviour,” she said.

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Ms Derderian told LAist that at least 30 to 40 people attended the party.

The city was able to track the disease to the party through the use of contact tracing. The results revealed that there were at least a half-dozen confirmed cases of coronavirus among the party guests.

The situation prompted the city to issue a tweet ahead of Mother’s Day warning residents about the dangers of gathering and encouraging them to stay home.

Dr Matthew Feaster, an epidemiologist with the city’s public health department, said that the the ability to find the “index case” was a successful example of contact tracing.

“This is an example of how good contact tracing can identify disease clusters and tell us more about the spread of disease in our community,” Mr Feaster said.

Dr Ying-Ying Goh, the agency’s director, warned that the coronavirus was still highly contagious and encouraged people to continue social distancing, wearing masks and washing their hands regularly.

Ms Derderian noted that despite several states easing their stay-at-home orders and others allowing businesses to reopen, the risk of catching the virus is still significant.

“More things are opening up through the state and in our city ... there’s an increase in traffic, people are out in the community now more, walking and running and bike riding, which is great as long as they’re maintaining social distance,” she told LAist. “But we don’t want people to get a false sense of security. All it takes is one to infect several others and then it’s like investigative reporting where you have to go in and determine what contacts these people had.”