A 13-year-old girl has infected 11 people in her family with coronavirus after a three-week family vacation this summer.
The Centers for Disease Control reported the case, which revealed that the girl from Illinois infected her family members from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Georgia when they gathered for a vacation in June.
The report didn’t reveal the family’s identity, but said that the teen girl got infected with coronavirus in June and then got a rapid test four days after she was infected. The test came back negative and she left for vacation a few days later.
About two days after the test, she had a stuffy nose – which was her only symptom.
The CDC said that 14 family members gathered in a five-bedroom two-bathroom house for about eight to 25 days. The relatives’ ages ranged from 9-72 and the report says no one wore face masks or practiced social distancing.
“(The) outbreak highlights several important issues that are good to review before the holidays,” a Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman said in an email.
Of the 11 family members diagnosed, one was hospitalized and another went to the emergency room with respiratory symptoms, but they both recovered.
“This outbreak highlights several important issues,” the report said. “First, children and adolescents can serve as the source for COVID-19 outbreaks within families, even when their symptoms are mild. Better understanding of transmission by children and adolescents in different settings is needed to refine public health guidance.”
