Some staff at Ukiah clinic contracted COVID; exposure did not occur at clinic and patients weren’t exposed (updated 3:40pm)

MENDOCINO Co., 8/12/20 — A small, but unknown, number of staff at an Adventist Health clinic in Ukiah have tested positive for COVID-19, Adventist Health announced today. In a brief interview Adventist spokesperson Ceci Winger said that various details could not be released due to privacy concerns.

It has not been divulged whether the staff are doctors, nurses, or other workers at the clinic, nor has the number of people infected been given. What Adventist did say is that contract tracing has determined that the staff members contracted the virus outside of the clinic setting, and that they did not expose any patients to the virus. The infected people have “mild symptoms” and are isolating.

The clinic in question is the Adventist Health Family Medicine residency clinic across the street from Ukiah Valley Medical Center. Since the onset of the pandemic extra cleanings have been performed daily at all medical sites.

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Jason Wells, president of Adventist Health in Mendocino County, made the following statement:

“Contract tracing was done on all staff in the clinic with 100% negative results. The team members that did test positive (before the contract tracing was done) had not been around patients within the 48 hour window prior to having mild symptoms which led them to get tested. [Mendocino] Public Health has been an exceptional partner in investigating this issue and the experts are confident this will not turn into a larger problem. The staff is currently seeing patients and the large clinic continues to meet the need of our community. Our care teams are serving COVID positive patients every day in our ERs, hospitals and clinics and doing it with compassion and courage.”

Jason Wells

Here is the statement from Adventist:

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Yesterday, we were informed that some of our team members at one of our medical clinics have tested positive for COVID-19. Our initial investigation determined that there was no exposure to patients and that the original exposure occurred outside of the clinic. Our staff members have mild symptoms and are now isolating at home in accordance with public health guidance.

At the onset of this pandemic, we increased safety measures and infection prevention practices in line with CDC guidance to protect our community — screening all patients and staff for symptoms prior to entry, performing additional cleaning, requiring masks for all patients, providing staff with appropriate PPE, restricting visitors and implementing social distancing where possible in our work spaces. Given the fact we have seen over 79,000 clinic visits before this incident, we are confident that our policies and procedures continue to provide a safe place for patients to seek care.

Patient and staff safety remain our priority. We continue to be grateful to our staff who work in the front lines of this health crisis and thank our community for their continued vigilance in doing their part to help prevent the spread.

Adventist Health