Ten patients and four employees at Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center have tested positive for COVID-19, the hospital said July 18.
Five of the 14 infections involved people who were fully vaccinated, and only unvaccinated patients are experiencing symptoms, according to PeaceHealth.
The infected patients all had links to the same patient floor. PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center has temporarily stopped new admissions to the floor and restricted hospital visitors out of an abundance of caution. All other patients on the identified floor have or are undergoing testing, the hospital said.
PeaceHealth is working with local health officials to investigate the infections and has sent virus samples to the Washington Department of Health to test for the delta variant.
"I have full confidence in our highly qualified healthcare professionals to manage through this recent incident. We have been treating COVID-19 patients for more than 16 months and have cared for more than 1,000," Lawrence Neville, MD, the hospital's CMO, said in a news release emailed to Becker's. "Our infection prevention specialists immediately began conducting a thorough review to understand the root causes of this situation, and to ensure further protection for our patients and caregivers."