No Cooperation After Party Caused Montco COVID Spread: County

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — Officials in Montgomery County have pointed to a recent large social gathering outside of the county as an example of the ripple effects which contact tracing, and the lack of it, can quickly have on a significant part of the community.

Several residents of Montgomery County tested positive after the party in question, which was held at an unnamed location nearby, but outside of the county itself.

When the county got in touch with these individuals who had tested positive, they refused to provide the names or any information regarding the other attendees of the party, Commissioner Val Arkoosh said.

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"Because names were not provided, individuals were not told they needed to quarantine, and were unaware they'd possibly been exposed," she said during a news conference Wednesday.

This large group of people continued going to camps, schools, and workplaces around Montgomery County. At least three of them tested positive in the fourteen days following the original party, meaning they exposed a huge group of people to the virus, Arkoosh said.

Because of his, a large number of people are now in quarantine as a result of the initial lack of cooperation.

"These cases and all of these quarantines were preventable if the original people involved had simply cooperated with contact tracing," Arkoosh said, reminding residents that no one is getting in trouble from contact tracers. "These calls are not judgmental."

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Cooperation has improved countywide, officials noted, with 97 percent of those contacted fully cooperating.

However, officials have been able to get in touch with only 70 percent of all known exposed individuals, a number which they said is uncomfortably low. They said many people simply aren't returning phone calls.

The county has seen a slight spike in overall cases over the last two weeks, though the underlying metrics remain strong. The overall percent positivity rate on all tests in the county is a healthy 3.1 percent, though that is elevated from the low point of 2.57 percent on Aug. 10.