Connecticut Birthday Party Believed To Be Epicenter Of Spike In Cases Across The State

A birthday party in Westport, Fairfield County in Connecticut that was held earlier this month has become the center of talks about what could be a coronavirus “super-spreading” event after it was confirmed that over half of the 50 attendees got infected with the COVID-19 strain.

First reported by the New York Times, the said party for the 40^th birthday of a Connecticut woman is being referred to as “Party Zero” as it happened when the state didn’t have confirmed coronavirus cases yet.

The birthday party was held on March 5 and as of Tuesday, Connecticut has recorded 415 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Data from the Johns Hopkins University revealed that 270 of the state’s total cases are from Fairfield County.

Associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard William Hanage said the incident of over 25 people testing positive of the COVID-19 strain during the Westport party “may be an example of the kind of thing we call a super-spreading event.”

Several people who attended the birthday celebration went back home to New York and attended big events in the metro area, as later revealed by their tracing history. New York has the biggest number of coronavirus cases in the United States.

Connecticut officials did not disclose the names of the partygoers who have since tested positive of the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile in New York, things escalated fast over the past few days despite not being one of the first states that reported the early coronavirus cases in the country.

New York now has over 30,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and while the massive spike in new cases daily may be devastating for some, health experts said the increase in new cases in the state may also be because of its more widespread testing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Before New York started implementing stricter measures for social distancing and before establishments were shut down, residents and health experts called on the local government to act soon to prevent further infections.

News of New York’s spiking COVID-19 cases and the potential super-spreading event in Connecticut came as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the U.S. may become the next epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that the main priority at this point is to get more hospital beds for the hard-hit state, CNN reported.

Of the 30,811 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state, 17,858 are in New York City and 12 percent of them are admitted at hospitals across the state.