- A New Orleans swingers party of 300 people is being called a superspreader event after 41 attendees tested positive for COVID-19.
- Naughty in N'awlins was held November 11 through November 14, with safety measures in place that required guests to wear masks and keep a diary of anyone they had interacted with longer than 10 minutes.
- Party organizer Bob Hannaford wrote that he regretted hosting the event in a blog post.
- "If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again," Hannaford wrote.
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A New Orleans swingers convention of over 300 people is being dubbed a "superspreader" event by local media after 41 attendees tested positive for COVID-19, according to party organizer Bob Hannaford.
The 300-person Naughty in N'awlins swingers convention was held on November 11 through November 14th. It was much smaller than in years past, as NOLA.com reported attendance surpassed 2,000 people previously.
Guests were required to wear masks inside the venue, social distance, and keep a journal of everyone they had made contact with at the event.
But even a smaller group and a requirement for attendees to get tested before the event wasn't enough to keep the coronavirus from infiltrating the event at the NOPSI Hotel.
On November 23, five people tested positive. The next day 14 more tested positive, and the day after that, it jumped to 29 total cases. Hannaford wrote though the current total is 41 cases, his team is still contact tracing to find any other positive COVID cases.
According to Hannaford, most of the convention's COVID-19 cases are mild or asymptomatic, with the exception of one hospitalization (the person has since recovered).
He and his wife said they regret putting on the event.
"If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again," Hannaford wrote in a blog post. "I 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% better."
Other sex parties across the globe have been shut down for similar COVID-19 concerns, including a recent Queens, New York swingers party of 80 maskless attendees. But sex parties and conventions haven't been the only large indoor gatherings to lead to large numbers of infections.
The Louisiana Department of Health alone has linked nine COVID-19 outbreaks to weddings, nine outbreaks to social events, and 60 to restaurants.
Across the US, weddings have acted as an incubator for outbreaks, including a 300-person wedding in Washington and a 113-person wedding in New York.
"Hosting one of these events after all New York has been through is obnoxious and irresponsible — not to mention illegal," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said after the New York wedding resulted in over 30 COVID-19 cases.
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