EDEN, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side is getting answers about a COVID-19 cluster in Eden that we found out about last week.
The Erie County Department of Health confirmed Wednesday that 38 new coronavirus cases in Eden were linked to a single source and that the risk of continued virus spread was "very low." The town supervisor told 2 On Your Side's Steve Brown last week that the source was not at a nursing home or related to a big party.
This cluster of cases stood out because as of Monday, Eden has had 75 confirmed cases total, so 38 is more than half.
Wednesday, a health department spokesperson told 2 On Your Side the source of a virus outbreak is not disclosed unless tracing fails to identify close contacts of people who have tested positive.
On Monday, 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik tried to track down more information about the cluster. Dudzik contacted the Erie County Executive's office, the Erie County Department of Health, Eden's Town Supervisor, and State Senator Patrick Gallivan and Assemblymember David DiPietro – whose districts include Eden.
Eden Town Supervisor Melissa Hartman got back to us Monday morning saying, "As I stated last week... I have not been given any information on the source of the outbreak. Any questions can be referred to the ECDOH."
While we didn't hear back from the Erie County Executive's office by the time we filed this report, we did hear back from the Erie County Department of Health. A spokesperson told us the information it has to release was included in last week's statement and that detailed information – including date, time, and location – related to a public exposure is released when the health department's contact tracing process isn't able to identify close contacts.
The spokesperson for the Erie County Department of Health says, "In this situation with Eden residents, we were able to identify and notify close contacts through our contact tracing process."
State Senator Gallivan's office told 2 On Your Side it had no additional info about the cases. Assemblymember DiPietro's office did not get back to us before we filed this report.
The the Erie County Department of Health also put out a press release Monday morning announcing testing for farm workers. We asked if that has anything to do with the cluster, and we were told the county has been working on this plan for testing on farms and agribusinesses for several weeks.