COVID-19 cases rise following the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
According to NBC News, daily Covid cases in Riverside County increased more than 75 percent two weeks after the festival. Tens of thousands of fans, including celebrities, attended the primarily outdoor festival. The Coachella organizers did not enforce any mask, testing, or vaccination mandates for attendees.
Epidemiology professor at UCLA, Anne Rimion, told NBC, “When you’re in close proximity to others singing and dancing and eating and drinking. All the things that you do with these festivals. It’s not surprising that we’re going to see transmission.”
Since the festival began on April 14th, officials say the daily cases jumped from 102 to 180 during the two weeks the event took place. However, they feel the exact number may be higher than what they have reported.
“What we’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg,” Rimio explains. “Because we know that only a fraction of people who test positive are taking PCR tests or tests that are going to be reported.”
To make matters worse, another festival took place this weekend at the Coachella Valley, making the surge even higher.
“We’ll be dealing with the echoes of this for weeks to come,” Rimio added. “We’re destined to see many more cases as a result.”
The majority of the cases were infected with the BA.2 omicron sub-variant. The variant is fifty percent more contagious than the original omicron strain. It is also nine times more transmittable than the delta strain.
A clinical professor at the University of Florida said, “We’ve looked at outdoor events in the past as being a little bit more protective than indoor events when it comes to the transmission of COVID-19. But I think that omicron really changed that calculation.”
Coachella has not released a statement regarding the surge.
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