Intentional COVID infection ‘parties’ reported in Walla Walla County

Update: Meghan DeBolt, director of the county’s Department of Community Health, later corrected herself to clarify the parties were not held with the intent of spreading the illness. People were having parties and not caring if someone who tested positive was there.

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Some of the coronavirus infections in Walla Walla County are the result of intentional parties to spread the illness, said county health officials.

Walla Walla County health investigators say they’ve been told that “COVID-19 parties” were organized so people could be with an infected person in attempt to catch the virus, reported the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

Meghan DeBolt, director of the county’s Department of Community Health, told the Union-Bulletin that a recent increase in positive test results are because of such get-togethers.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s irresponsible,” DeBolt told the Union-Bulletin.

Officials with the Benton Franklin Health District said their contact tracing of patients with COVID-19 to find people they’ve been in close contact with has not revealed similar gatherings in the Tri-Cities area.

The coronavirus parties may be modeled on “chickenpox parties” at which parents bring healthy children to a party with an ill child to intentionally expose their unvaccinated children.

However, unlike chickenpox, very little is known about the new coronavirus, say health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control has issued warnings against hosting or participating in chickenpox parties, saying there is no way to tell in advance how severe a child’s symptoms will be.

Although people over 60 or with underlying health conditions are most likely to have severe cases of COVID-19, one person in the Tri-Cities area with neither risk factor has died.

This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 7:32 PM.