Health officials in Washington state have backtracked on a recent report that some people are trying to infect themselves with COVID-19 at “coronavirus parties,” saying the gatherings were not intended to spread the virus.
Walla Walla County officials reported on Monday that authorities had been “receiving reports of Covid-19 parties occurring in our community, where non-infected people mingle with an infected person in an effort to catch the virus,” similar to chickenpox parties.
However, the county’s director of community health, Meghan DeBolt, later said that no evidence that the party-goers intended to get infected with the virus has been found, though there may have been infected people in attendance that spread it inadvertently.
“We know that people are exhausted from isolation and quarantine,” DeBolt said, according to The New York Times. “We want to be able to reopen, too. We want to be able to go to restaurants and socialize with friends and family members. We need our community’s help to be diligent for a little bit longer so that we can get ahead of this.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.