It was a chilly evening in Mount Vernon, Washington, on March 10, when a group of singers met for choir practice at their church, just as they did most Tuesday nights.
The full choir consists of 122 singers, but only 61 made it that night, including one who had been fighting cold-like symptoms for a few days.
That person later tested positive for the coronavirus, and within two days of the practice, six more members of the choir had developed a fever. Ultimately, 53 members of the choir became ill with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and two of them died.
The event, which was first reported by The Los Angeles Times in March, demonstrated how contagious and dangerous the coronavirus is, especially among older populations. The median age for those attending the practice that night was 69.
A study since then has showed that swift action by the members of the choir, including voluntary isolation, along with contact tracing by the Skagit County Health Department, helped contain the spread and prevent what could have been a much larger outbreak in that community, about an hour’s drive north of Seattle.
Although the virus spread quickly and thoroughly within the choir, it did not result in a significant increase in the infection rate of the community at large.
