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US swingers convention leads to over 40 people testing positive for Covid-19

December 3, 2020
People dancing in a nightclub.

More than 40 people have tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a swingers convention in the US last month.

Around 250 people turned out for the multi-day event, Naughty in N'awlins, held in New Orleans in mid-November, the Guardian reports.

Fourty-one people tested positive following the superspreader event, with one attendee later being hospitalised in a serious condition. They have since recovered.

"If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again,” event organiser Bob Hannaford said in a blog post dated November 27.

"Even though most of the 41 positive cases have mostly been asymptomatic or very mild cases. The reason I wouldn’t is that I know of two people who had a tougher time and they were suffering. One of them, a good friend of mine, was hospitalised in serious condition.

Hannaford said he had monitored trends in the lead-up to the event, and attendees had observed social distancing and contact tracing. Attendees were also tested for Covid-19 before their arrival, and wristbands were issued to attendees who had previously tested positive but had since recovered.

He attributed the cases to attendees' complacency as the event drew to a close.

Hannaford said people who tested positive for Covid-19 had admitted that while they "were super diligent on the first two days," they had "relaxed a little on Friday and then they said ‘it’s our last day.'"

"Many admitted that their lax effort on that final day is probably why they ended up positive."

Hannaford said he "wouldn’t do it again if I knew then, what I know now".

"It weighs on me and it will continue to weigh on me until everyone is 100 per cent better."

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