At least 28 vaccinated people test positive for COVID after holiday party in Marin County

At least 28 people vaccinated in Marin County have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a holiday rally at a restaurant.

Public health officials believe the outbreak involves the highly infectious variant of Omicron, which has become the dominant strain of the virus in the United States after sweeping the country in recent days.

Marin County public health officials said participants in the December 11 indoor rally were not required to wear face masks because a statewide indoor mask mandate prompted by Omicron had not yet taken effect, and because the guests were dining.

But the hosts had insisted that all guests be vaccinated and provide proof of a negative home COVID-19 test on the day of the party, according to Dr Matt Willis, Marin County public health official. Many guests had also received booster shots.

The rally organizers did everything right, Willis said on Wednesday, and no factors led to the outbreak.

“It’s a glimpse of how Omicron is behaving,” he said. “This kind of epidemic is not going to sound like news anytime soon.”

The rally was held at the Local Farm House, a restaurant in Larkspur. Restaurant owner David Monson said on Wednesday there were 65 guests and six employees. An employee has tested positive and is in home quarantine.

Monson said that in nearly two years of running restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic, he had seen nothing “as remotely transmissible” as the Omicron variant.

“Whether you’re in a restaurant, at Costco, at the supermarket – for god’s sake, whatever you do – it’s a really transmissible virus,” he said. “You can do whatever you’re supposed to do, and at the end of the day you can get it anyway. ”

The couple who hosted the event, Mike and Eliza Koeppel, told the Independent Marine Journal that they followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including guidelines that the holidays were safe for those vaccinated.

The couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday, but Eliza Koeppel told The Journal they “feel bad about what happened. It’s just the worst nightmare.”

Omicron has rocked the Golden State in recent days, public health officials issuing urgent warnings about the rapid rate of transmission of the variant and the dire outlook for unvaccinated bags of State.

Several holiday events in Los Angeles County, including the Grand Park New Year’s Eve Countdown – were canceled or transferred to virtual events only amid an increasing number of cases.

COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County are up 34% from two weeks ago, according to The Times coronavirus tracker.

But public health officials, including Dr Anthony Fauci, have continued to emphasize that vaccinated people, and especially boosted people, are the most protected against infection and will likely have a mild case if infected. The unvaccinated remain the most exposed to the risk of hospitalization and death.

Most of those who tested positive after the Marin vacation rally had minimal or no symptoms, and none required hospitalization, County Health and Human Services spokesperson Laine Hendricks said on Wednesday.

“They had less severe results than if they had given up the vaccine altogether,” she said.

Willis said the county is doing genome sequencing on a subset of the party attendees, but cases are almost certain to be linked to Omicron based on how fast the virus has moved through the group. fully vaccinated.

Marin sees Omicron in its sewage, he added, and the prevalence of the variant is increasing rapidly in the Bay Area.

Public health officials say Omicron is more likely to cause breakthrough infections than previous variants.

In one video update About Omicron this week, Willis said Marin has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. More than 83% of the county’s residents are considered fully vaccinated, compared to about 67% of the state’s residents, according to The Times immunization tracker.

“If we have one asset as a community, it’s the high vaccination rates,” he said. “It has helped us through every step of this pandemic so far – it has been our best singular strategy.

“But,” he added, “we’re not there yet. We can’t rest on these laurels, as not enough of us yet have the full level of protection needed to truly protect ourselves against Omicron. “

Experts say booster shots help increase antibody levels which naturally diminish over time and may help fight Omicron, with recent studies finding 25-fold improvements in Pfizer’s extra shot and 37 times more improvements by Moderna.

Monson, the owner of the restaurant, said he was hesitant to hold the event but was appeased by the security measures. He has already had to abandon one of his two restaurants during the pandemic.

“Everyone wants to know the answer, and for me the simple answer is that there is no answer,” he said of the outbreak. “You are doing everything you can. Everyone followed all the protocols, everyone did what they were supposed to do. And look, it happened. It’s super transmissible.