Some people really should wear a warning sign saying, “I’m an idiot.” As the lockdowns end, people in Canada and the US, especially young people, are increasingly ignoring social distancing at parties, nightclubs and bars. Even more concerning is the advent of ‘COVID-19 Parties’ held with the bizarre and dangerous aim of spreading/catching the disease.
Canadian Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo noted a recent increase in COVID-19 cases among young people and advises everyone, especially young adults, to find “creative ways’ to socialize during the pandemic.
“Singing, mingling and dancing in close contact with others, in close spaces he said, “are ideal conditions for the spread of COVID-19.”
In Ottawa, Public Health reported 19 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday – the largest one-day spike in new cases since May 21, Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health said nine of the cases are related to parties, the others are related to people who are still working while sick.
In Osceola County, Florida the sheriff said the county is experiencing is sudden recent spike in coronavirus cases as a result of COVID-19 parties. Sheriff Russ Gibson said “residents are afraid” after more than 600 noise complaints were filed since March due to massive parties hosted in vacation rental homes. Ranging in size from 50 to 400 people, the parties attract gang members from all parts of Central Florida.
Video released by the sheriff’s office shows dozens of cars blocking off a roadway in early July where a large group of people gathered to dance and party in the street. One person has already been killed as a result of shootings among the partygoers.
Gibson believes that the groups come from central Florida and rent multiple vacation homes in the area, focusing on three gated housing developments in particular.
Younger Floridians have been the source of new cases as residents aged from 25 to 34 recorded the most recent ones.
Such gatherings have been sprouting up elsewhere across the US. One 30-year-old man reportedly died in San Antonio, Texas after attending a COVID party, thinking the pandemic was a hoax.
Yolanda Enrich, a North Carolina nurse practitioner, said that several patients attended COVID parties because they are not afraid of being infected.
“We have heard from a lot of patients and the community that they’re unafraid of getting the virus, so people are actually out and about trying to get the virus – attending gatherings, parties – just trying to maximize their chances of exposure,” Enrich said.
In Alabama, multiple University of Alabama students were also organizing COVID parties as some sort of contest to see who would get infected first, according to Tuscaloosa City Councilor Sonya McKinstry.
The first person confirmed by a doctor to have coronavirus after being exposed wins the money made from the ticket sales.
Perhaps it could help pay for the funeral.
