College students in the US state of Alabama are knowingly attending parties with the intention of contracting coronavirus, according to a city councillor who has warned against the so-called “COVID parties.”
ABC News reports Tuscaloosa City Councillor Sonya McKinstry made the claim on Wednesday, alleging that students in the college town “put money in a pot and they try to get COVID.
“Whoever gets COVID first gets the pot,” McKinstry told the outlet. “It makes no sense.”
McKinstry didn’t name any schools involved, and didn’t appear to provide further details on the situation.
But in a pre-council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Tuscaloosa Fire Chief Randy Smith said he was aware of parties “where students or kids would come in with known positives.”
He stopped short of claiming that young folks are trying to catch the virus, but Smith said his local doctor’s offices and state authorities verified that punters with COVID-19 have been attending social gatherings.
The “COVID party” thing is a huge claim, but it’s not exactly new. In May, health officials from Walla Walla County, Washington, were forced to retract their allegation that residents were throwing parties with the express purpose of spreading the virus.
“We have discovered that there were not intentional COVID parties,” said Director of Community Health Meghan DeBolt. “Just innocent endeavors.”
Despite the latest announcement feeling a bit suss, the numbers coming out of Alabama are legitimately disturbing. State health authorities say 947 people have died of the virus. Nearly 39,000 cases have been confirmed, with more 10,600 of those coming in the past 14 days.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has extended the state’s “Safer at Home” orders through to July 31, requiring businesses to follow sanitation protocols and forcing retail operations to limit the number of patrons on the premises at any one time.
Nationally, the US accrued its highest-ever number of cases in a single day on Wednesday, with 46,853 new cases coming through.
It should be obvious that student parties are inadvisable while COVID-19 remains so rampant – but there’s more to worry about than allegations of thunderously stupid college kids deliberately spreading the virus.
