Two people are dead and four of their fellow workers were hospitalized after a covid outbreak swept through a government building in Manatee County, Florida. Via CNN:
The outbreak began in the IT department, according to Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes, who is also an epidemiologist. Another person who worked on the same floor but in a different department also tested positive for coronavirus last week.
Of the six people infected, five were hospitalized. One employee who was in the hospital died and another employee who was not hospitalized also died, Hopes told CNN's Erin Burnett.
The only exposed employee in the IT office who was vaccinated did not get infected, Hopes said.
The building closed for a day, but when it reopened Monday, this being Florida, masks are still optional, according to CNN. Oh, and the local school board just voted to have schools reopen without masks. Because Florida!
Because of the speed and lethality with which the virus attacked, and the fact that one of the employees was only 40, officials are assuming it is the delta strain, which appears to be around 60% more transmissible than alpha -- which was more contagious than the original strain that emerged from Wuhan, China, in late 2019.
Don't worry, Floridians: Your beloved governor is juking the stats to make it all look better!
