Fresno church cancels youth activities after COVID exposures at summer camp
A Fresno church that sent hundreds of children to a mountain summer camp last week has canceled its youth activities after some of the attendees were sent home early after being exposed to COVID-19 during their stay.
Brad Bell, lead pastor at The Well Community Church with locations in north Fresno and Clovis, told The Bee that more than 450 people from the church – a combination of students in sixth through 12th grades, along with adult leaders – attended a weeklong summer camp session at Hume Lake Christian Camp in eastern Fresno County.
About 25 to 30 of the campers “were contacted and sent home for various reasons” in the latter part of last week, Bell said. That included individuals who showed coronavirus symptoms or tested positive for the virus. It also included people who indicated through contact tracing that they were in proximity to someone who had symptoms or tested positive.
“Many of our students who were sent home were neither positive nor symptomatic but rather, in an abundance of caution, were caught up in the contact tracing process and were sent home to ensure the safety of the rest of the camp,” Bell said in an e-mail to The Bee.
Concerns about COVID-19 cases at the camp arose last week after a San Francisco television station reported that at least three Bay Area children who were there tested positive for the virus and were sent home early to minimize exposure of other campers.
A representative for the Hume Lake organization – which also runs camps in San Bernardino County, San Diego and in Massachusetts – said the camp in Fresno County hosts about 2,000 campers in a given week, with facilities and activities spread out over 365 acres. “It’s not like all these people are cornered under a bubble,” the representative told The Bee. Camps for middle-school and high school students are in different locations on the property.
‘The individual camps run weekly, so the kids who were at the camp last week are no longer there this week,” the representative added. “As of now, there are no COVID cases among campers at Hume Lake. Last week that obviously wasn’t the case.”
The camp’s representative said she had no information on the number of campers affected last week, either symptomatic, had positive tests or were exposed to others who were infected.
The ripple effects from the multiple camp cases – which officials from the Fresno County Department of Public Health stopped short of calling an “outbreak” last week – was being felt at The Well, Bell said.
“I am not aware of the number of students or adult leaders (from The Well) that were impacted in any negative way from COVID positivity,” he told The Bee. But, he added, “in an abundance of caution, we have canceled all youth events for the week and are praying for a speedy recovery and a healthy return to normalcy for all involved.”
Bell dismissed as “highly inflated” a figure offered by a church member that 80 or more children were sent home from the camp. “Our records indicate a third of that number” were sent home, he said.
Cases defy precautions
The Fresno County Department of Public Health did not address details about the number of cases at the camp. “We are in communication with Hume Lake camp organizers and our investigation is ongoing,” Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer, told The Bee on Wednesday.
Vohra said his agency has shared with the Hume Lake organization a document updated late last week offering guidance for families and camp operators to follow “to ensure safe practices, before, during and after cases of COVID are identified in group settings involving children.” The guidance will remain in effect through the end of September.
Hume Lake’s representative said the infections that arose last week came despite numerous precautions that were put in place this summer to minimize the risk of coronavirus infections among campers or staff.
In addition to isolating and sending home campers who became sick or tested positive during their stay, the representative said, “Hume immediately reached out to parents of children exposed to positive cases” and sent those children home as well.
The organization’s statement of COVID-19 precautions requires every camper, counselor and staff member to show proof of vaccination for COVID-19 or proof of a negative coronavirus test three days before they arrive at the camp.
The representative said those who are unable to upload their documentation to the camp’s online screening system – where they are verified by the camp medical staff – receive a rapid antigen test for COVID-19 when they arrive and must test negative before they can enter the camp.
The Hume organization’s COVID-19 preparedness and response plan also indicates that campers and staff will receive daily temperature screenings; staff temperatures are to be taken and recorded at the start of every shift.
The plan also calls for all campers and staff to be screened for symptoms of a potential coronavirus infection, including cough, shortness of breath or breathing difficulty, chills, muscle/body aches, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, known close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 person, or a fever of 100.4 or higher.
Campers are told that masks are required whenever they are indoors except while dining or sleeping in their assigned bunk. Campers are also encouraged to follow social-distancing guidelines when possible.
The plan also calls for camp staff to sanitize areas used by a sick camper before the next use.
“The camp immediately did targeted cleaning and disinfecting of those areas,” the camp representative said, “in addition to the already-enhanced cleaning in place.”
Bell said he was “grateful for the health screening and safety protocols put in place by Hume to create a safe and secure camping environment,”
“Every family understood the potential risk involved with sending their students to camp and willingly participated despite the relative risk,” he added.
While he said he was unaware of any positive COVID cases among The Well’s campers, “I am aware of the vast array of young people who enjoyed a glimpse of normalcy in the midst of a very difficult year.”
Bell added that the church was “diligent to inform parents of any exposure and invited them to come and take their child home as soon as possible” from the camp.
“We are encouraging all involved to follow the CDC guidelines and protocols regarding self-care and self-quarantine” Bell said in response to a question from The Bee about the potential spread of the virus within the congregation at the church’s in-person services. “All families we have contacted are faithfully caring for their students and following the prescribed health protocols.”
As a church, “The Well does not promote or discourage” vaccinations for COVID-19 among its members, Bell said. “Vaccine awareness is not our primary mission. Rather, our purpose is to help people connect to God and to each other in every neighborhood.”
He added that “we encourage every individual to do their research, get informed, and prayerfully consider how they would like to proceed” with vaccination.
The Well closed its doors in March 2020 and switched to offering online worship services for its members in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the year progressed, however, the church joined several other large Fresno-area churches in resuming in-person services, defying state closure orders put in place last fall to prevent the spread of the virus among large indoor gatherings.
The closure order and capacity limits for in-person services at churches were later overturned in court.
This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 2:45 PM.
