2 major San Francisco hospitals reported 233 staff tested positive for COVID-19

• More than 200 hospital staff tested positive for COVID-19 in July.

• Most of these staff were vaccinated and had mild to moderate symptoms.

• The Delta variant is also known to spread among those vaccinated in cases of breakthrough.

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Hundreds of staff at two major San Francisco hospitals tested positive for the coronavirus in July, most of them groundbreaking cases of the highly infectious Delta variant, The New York Times reported on Saturday night.

The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, told media that 183 of its 35,000 employees have tested positive. Of those infected, 84% were fully vaccinated and only two vaccinated staff required hospitalization for their symptoms.

At Zuckerberg General Hospital in San Francisco, at least 50 out of a total of 7,500 hospital staff have been infected, of which 75 to 80 percent have been vaccinated. None of these staff had to be hospitalized.

UCSF chief medical officer Dr Lukejohn Day told The Times numbers from his hospital show how important and effective vaccinations are.

“What we’re seeing is a lot of what the vaccine data has shown us: you can still get COVID, potentially. But if you get it, it’s not a big deal at all,” said Day.

Day also told ABC7 News that at least 99% of cases at UCSF trace back to community spread, but hospital officials are still investigating and conducting contact tracing.

He added that most of the cases had mild to moderate symptoms and some were completely asymptomatic. He said the cases have spread among doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff.

“We kind of see that across the board,” he said. “So far, we have not detected any patient-to-staff or staff-to-patient transmission at this time. “

The highly infectious Delta variant has been found to be more transmissible than viruses that cause colds, Ebola and smallpox, and is just as contagious as chickenpox, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in internal documents.

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The Delta variant is also known to spread among people vaccinated in groundbreaking cases, which prompted the agency this week to recommend that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high transmission rates. .

The CDC stressed that getting the vaccine is always very beneficial and is a crucial part of fighting the coronavirus – even the Delta variant.

“Getting the vaccine continues to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death, even with Delta,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky told media on Tuesday.

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