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Multiple staff members test positive for COVID-19 at Rock Church

At least 15 people tested positive at 5 Rock locations throughout San Diego County.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The leadership at Rock Church said multiple staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 at each of its five campuses and micro-sites throughout San Diego County. The Director of Operations for the church said they’ve conducted contact tracing and several people are now in quarantine.

One of the pastors said they immediately jumped into action after a staff member tested positive Thursday. They sent out notifications, got people tested and followed CDC guidelines to prevent anyone else from being exposed.

“We don’t know if it started with one and then spread within multiple staff members or if multiple staff members just happened to test positive at the same time,” said Lisa Penberthy, a Rock Church Exec. Pastor and Director of Operations.  

Rock Church said they have retraced contact amongst its staff as much as they can to figure out if other people may have been exposed to COVID-19 in the last week or so. So far, they know that at least 15 staff members tested positive, including three in Point Loma and four others at the City Heights location.

“We determined that we would limit our in-person gatherings to our Point Loma campus and our microsites. Then of course send everyone else online. That decision was made yesterday evening and we communicated out to the church thereafter,” Penberthy said. 

Penberthy said Sunday services were held at Point Loma at 10 am and noon and all staff members in attendance had tested negative for coronavirus. She said no one has been hospitalized and only about half of them report feeling symptoms of COVID-19.

“We do have individuals on the list that were vaccinated, none of which that tested positive were vaccinated. It is something that we have talked to our staff about. It is not something we are requiring because we don’t require any other vaccines. So we’re not requiring this one at this time,” Penberthy said. 

Rock Church said it did a deep cleaning at both the Point Loma and City Heights locations Saturday and will continue cleaning all of its locations to prepare for next Sunday’s services.

WATCH: In-person worship resumes at full capacity across California

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