Montco Graduation, July 4th Parties Were COVID 'Super-Spreaders'

NORRISTOWN, PA — Parties both indoors and outdoors have continued to be the source of coronavirus cases, contact tracers in Montgomery County have found.

Celebrations such as graduation parties and 4th of July parties have served as "super-spreaders" of the virus in recent weeks, Commissioner Val Arkoosh said on Wednesday.

"When a large group of people are crowded together and not wearing mask, there is a high risk of transmission," she said.

These events have taken place both indoors and outdoors, Arkoosh said. Often, individuals at these large gatherings are either not wearing masks or not social distancing, officials have found.

Moreover, attendees at these events could be infectious and not realize it, because they're not yet showing symptoms.

The news comes after officials said last week that some partygoers in the county had refused to cooperate with contact tracers, making further containment of the virus impossible. Cooperation among residents, however, has improved, Arkoosh noted.

>>Montco Partygoers Not Cooperating With Contact Tracers: Officials

"I can't stress enough how important it is to cooperate with contact tracers. These conversations are confidential and non-judgmental."

Additionally, some positive new cases have also come from youth sports leagues around the county.

County officials are closely tracking the ages of individuals who test positive, and what that means for how the virus is spreading. The steepest increases over the last two months have occurred in the age brackets between 15 and 34 years old.

Specifically, the cases in 15 to 19 year olds have increased in the county from 1.7 percent on May 1 to 4.4 percent on July 29. Cases in 20 to 24 year olds have increased from 4.6 percent to 6.7 percent, and in 25 to 34 year olds have increased from 12.7 to 13.8.

These increases "are not as dramatic as other places have seen," Arkoosh said, but still meaningful.

An important metric increasingly referenced by health officials is the positivity rate of coronavirus tests. In Montgomery County, that number has held steady at around 3.47 percent, which officials see as "great news." A number below five percent is considered good. Many nearby counties, like Delaware and Philadelphia, have seen a "concerning" rise in that metric in recent weeks, according to Pennsylvania Department of Health.

>>Montco Coronavirus: Slight Case Increase As Positivity Rate Drops

The county has seen 385 cases in the last week. The daily average over the last 14 days is 49 cases. It's a slight rise, but manageable, according to the county.

"This is an amount that we can live with until a vaccine is available," Arkoosh said.

Continuing to practice social distancing and to wear masks when near people outside of your household is crucial to keeping the virus at a manageable level, and for allowing local businesses to recover and schools to reopen, officials said.