Texas Family Rattled When 18 Relatives Test Positive for COVID-19 After Surprise Birthday Party

After a couple of months of quarantine, we’re all safe from coronavirus, right? Sadly, it doesn’t always work like that—and one family found out the hard way.

One family in North Texas held a surprise 30th birthday where one guest who didn’t know he had the virus came. Unknowingly, though they practiced social distancing at the party, he infected seven other people in attendance. Then, those seven people, who didn’t know they had it, went and infected 10 other family members.

“It wasn’t that long. It was only a couple of hours,” said Ron Barbosa, a volunteer EMT, who didn’t attend the party, but was the father-in-law of the person it was for. “But during that brief time, somehow the other 18 family members are now infected with COVID.”

The party consisted of less than 25 people, a number that was deemed safe by the current health standards, and they all remained at least six feet apart from the entire duration of the party.

Those who were infected consisted of two grandparents, a cancer patient and Barbosa’s parents, who are in their 80s, all people at risk for the virus. Three of those people have been hospitalized, one who is on life support.

Sadly, no one is allowed to visit those in the hospital, but Barbosa says that’s for the best, even if it stinks.

“That’s really the best medicine,” he said. “You know they’re in there by themselves with no family. It’s heartbreaking.”

It just goes to show that the outbreak is still very much real and even if you take proper precautions, you may not be safe.

What kinds of outings have you allowed yourself to partake in right now? Would you feel comfortable going to a party right now—even when remaining distanced from everyone? When do you think we’ll be able to say goodbye to COVID-19 forever?