CRSSD Music Festival, which was held March 7-8 in San Diego, happened right on the cusp of most festivals and events in the next few months cancelling or postponing due to COVID-19. At the time, no cases had been identified in San Diego County and Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer, said she didn’t feel cancelling or postponing was yet necessary for CRSSD.
However, Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the county’s epidemiology and immunization services branch, in the process of investigating clusters among the first 55 identified cases of COVID-19, found that two people with known COVID-19 did attend the event.
Writes San Diego Tribune, “One was known to have traveled to a country where a coronavirus outbreak is ongoing while the second got sick after attending the event, he said. Given that it takes three to five days for symptoms to appear after infection, the executive said it is likely that the infection occurred before the event, not during it.”
A statement from CRSSD reads:
Dear CRSSD Community
We have been actively monitoring the ever-evolving coronavirus situation since the festival, last night it was officially confirmed to us by local health authorities that two people who attended CRSSD Festival have tested positive for coronavirus. We wanted to contact you as soon as this was confirmed.
As of now no cases have been confirmed to have originated at CRSSD, these individuals are believed to have contracted the virus outside the festival.
We want everyone in our community to stay safe and healthy, please practice social distancing and check the resources available online to follow the directions and guidelines from national and local health authorities.
San Diego health officials asked us to direct you to www.coronavirus-sd.com for the latest information.
Stay safe, with love
CRSSD
Though the festival instituted cleanliness practices such as extra hand sanitizing stations and cashless bars, it’s impossible to know how many other attendees these two came into contact with.
This is exactly what social distancing and cancellation/postponement of events aims to address, is random people out in the wild who might be carrying the virus without knowledge passing it on to others.
San Diego County has a total of 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday.
Photo via CRSSD Festival/FLG
Article updated with official statement from CRSSD