8 Fully Vaccinated Health Care Workers Test Positive for CCP Virus in Las Vegas: Report

A nurse prepares a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for administration at Jerome Mack Middle School in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 29, 2021. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Eight fully vaccinated health care workers tested positive for COVID-19 in June after attending a party in Las Vegas, according to a report.

A total of 11 health care workers had tested positive for COVID-19 after the gathering, and at least 10 of the 11—or seven out of the fully-vaccinated eight—had the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing emails from the Southern Nevada Health District that the Brown Institute for Media Innovation’s Documenting COVID-19 project obtained and shared with the paper.

According to the report, eight fully vaccinated people were inoculated between December 2020 and January. Of the remaining three people, two had received one dose of a two-dose vaccine and one person was unvaccinated.

They were all employees of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. Hospital CEO Todd Sklamberg told the paper that the source of the outbreak was “an off-site private party” on June 7 and that the employees have since recovered and returned to work.

He noted that the health care workers had experienced symptoms similar to allergies or the common cold and chose to get tested before finding out they had the CCP virus.

“There were no exposures to our patients, as our staff complies with all [personal protective equipment] guidelines, masking at all times and wearing face shields with all patient encounters,” he said.

No evidence of improper storage or handling issues were found with the vaccine that the hospital administers to its employees and patients, a health district representative told the paper.

The Delta variant was first identified in India late last year before spreading to dozens of other countries this year.

It became the most dominant version of the CCP virus, circulating in the United States over the two weeks ending on July 3, accounting for approximately 51.7 percent of all new virus cases across the country, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The variant represents about 62 percent of new infections in Nevada over the past 60 days.

Researchers have said it’s too early to say whether it’s more or less deadly than other variants of the CCP virus. Correspondence published in The Lancet in June suggested that the chance of hospitalization may be higher with the Delta variant compared to the earlier Alpha variant.

More than 48 percent of the total U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against the virus as of July 15, according to the CDC, while more than 56 percent have had at least one dose of a two-dose vaccine.