COVID Outbreak Includes 50 Atrium Health Employees: Report

CHARLOTTE, NC — At least 50 health care workers and nine patients at a Charlotte metro hospital have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a report.

The outbreak at Atrium Health Pineville, which was confirmed by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and now under investigation by state and local health officials, included 35 health care workers who had been vaccinated, according to WSOC.

Despite the breakthrough cases, the vaccines still protected the health care workers who tested positive, according to one hospital official.

“We are going to continue to see vaccinated people with mild cases of COVID,” Dr. Katie Passaretti, Atrium Health Director of Infection Prevention, told the station. “That does not mean the vaccine doesn’t work. The vaccine still protects individuals.”

The news comes three weeks after Atrium Health, Novant Health and several other large hospital systems in the state announced worker vaccination requirements. At the time, Atrium Health said its health care workers had until Oct. 31 to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Last week, hundreds of protesters marched through Charlotte, denouncing the new health care worker vaccine mandates.

“COVID is on the rise again, which includes many of the vaccinated; and hospital systems are still mandating this vaccine, so employees are quitting," a nurse at Atrium Health Pineville told WSOC Thursday. "If Atrium Health continues at this rate, a sentinel event will eventually occur.”

SEE ALSO:

• NC Hospitals Report Record-Breaking Spike In COVID ICU Patients
• Health Care Workers Protest Novant, Atrium Health Vaccine Mandate
• Vaccines Now Required For Mecklenburg Public Health Workers
• These NC Hospital Systems Now Requiring Employee Vaccinations