Forty-three staff members at a California hospital tested positive for coronavirus from December 27th through New Year’s Day, with the source of the infection thought to be an inflatable Christmas costume, CNN reports.
An employee looking to spread holiday cheer visited Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center’s emergency room while wearing an inflatable costume, which has a small fan that pushes air through the costume and out a vent in the top. That employee apparently was asymptomatically infected. “A staff member did appear briefly in the emergency department on Dec. 25th wearing an air-powered costume. Any exposure, if it occurred, would have been completely innocent, and quite accidental, as the individual had no Covid symptoms and only sought to lift the spirits of those around them during what is a very stressful time,” Irene Chavez, Kaiser’s senior VP and area manager, said.