A patient in their 30s has reportedly died from coronavirus after attending a 'COVID party' in Texas
Healthcare workers talk to a COVID-19 patient at Houston's United Memorial Medical Center on July 2. Note: The women photographed is not the patient who appears in this story.
Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
A patient in their 30s reportedly died from coronavirus after attending a "COVID party," according to healthcare officials in San Antonio, Texas.
"This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected," Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children's Hospital, told News4 reporters.
"Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said 'I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it's not,'" Appleby said.
Appleby decided to make this case public to urge Bexar County natives, particularly young people, to "realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily."
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A patient in their 30s reportedly died from coronavirus after attending a "COVID party" in San Antonio, Texas.
According to healthcare officials, before the patient's death, they admitted they believed the virus was a "hoax" and intentionally attended a party with an infected person.
"This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected," Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children's Hospital, told WOAI NBC News Channel 4.
Healthcare workers in the COVID-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas on July 2.
Appleby said she decided to make this case public to urge Bexar County natives to take the pandemic seriously — particularly young people, many of whom still seem to believe they cannot be seriously affected by the virus.
"It doesn't discriminate and none of us are invincible," Appleby said. "I don't want to be an alarmist and we're just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily."
"This is a concerning increase from a positive rate of about five percent only several weeks ago," she added.
On Friday, WOAI reported that San Antonio's case count has reached 18,600. After a local teenager died, the death toll in Bexar County — which includes San Antonio, and has a population of approximately 2 million — rose to 166.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said there are just 10% of hospital beds available.
Appleby did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
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