OLMSTED COUNTY, Minn. — Olmsted County public health officials say a house party is to blame for 17 COVID-19 cases.
Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs addressed the "cluster" of cases in a call on Friday. The cluster was first brought to attention in the public by Mark Thein, Olmsted County's District 7 Commissioner. He mentioned the house party in a Facebook post urging others to socially distance during the pandemic.
Both Thein and Briggs said contact tracers are to thank for this round of connect-the-dots. Briggs said the cases started with one asymptomatic person who attended the house party that potentially had up to 30 to 50 attendees in Rochester back in April.
"This was just as symptoms were starting - this person attended the party," Briggs said. "Subsequently 11 additional cases, lab confirmed, were associated with this individual and this party."
Briggs said then those 11 people infected five others, causing what's known as a 3rd generation infection.
"But since those five cases were identified and investigated, we have seen no further transmission for over three weeks now associated with this outbreak and group of cases," Briggs said.
When asked about whether he knew if the party-goers were in violation of the stay-at-home order, Briggs said he couldn't be totally sure.
"This is a group of 20-something-year-olds that were having a standard traditional house party in the middle of April," he said. "I think it's likely they were aware of it but I can't speak for those individuals without asking them about it."
He added the county was lucky to have been able to find the individuals affected and that those individuals were cooperative in contact tracing methods.
"We did interrupt transmission and we didn't see any deaths associated with this or anything like that," he said. "But these are serious situations."
Briggs said the health department's job is to mitigate spread, not to punish or penalize people.
As of Friday morning, Olmsted County has 417 COVID-19 cases and nine deaths.
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The state of Minnesota has set up a hotline for general questions about coronavirus at 651-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903, available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There is also a data portal online at mn.gov/covid19.