“All I will say is that there was not a single mask and I got sicker than ever in my entire life after that party,” Michelle said after attending Art With Me in Tulum, where she would have contracted COVID-19.
Mexico City, December 8 (However) .- “I couldn’t even get out of bed ”, he says Michelle. I was experiencing the symptoms of COVID-19, fever, fatigue and loss of taste and smell. A week ago he had attended the Art With Me, festival that took place in Tulum between November 11 and 15. And he assures that it was there, in Quintana Roo, where he fell ill.
At Art With Me, an international festival of art, music and culture “that aims to inspire us to be more connected with ourselves and create awareness around various environmental problems that affect us locally and globally”, attended by hundreds of young people since 2018. Mexicans and foreigners go. This year it was done again. The Daily Beast, an American newspaper, collects the testimonies of guests who claim to have contracted SARS-CoV-2 there.
“They served food, all open barbecue sandwiches. Everyone was holding hands, ”says Michelle. “All I will say is that there was not a single mask and I got sicker than I ever have in my entire life after that party,” he adds. His words are quoted by Marlow Stern.
According to the festival’s official site, Art With Me is “an immersive five-day journey that includes momentous art installations, interactive art experiences, inspiring lectures, culinary pop-ups, unforgettable parties, intimate live concerts, art workshops. well-being and health and many activities for children ”. This year, it seems, it also included an unnecessary risk: gathering crowds in a country that has surpassed 110,000 deaths from COVID-19.
Recommendations to prevent the spread of COVID are given on the festival’s official website.
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Beach in Tulum. Photo: Cuartoscuro.
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The photographs that the festival shared on social networks during November support what the witnesses said: there were measures, but they were relaxed. The images show children playing within inches of each other, people wearing poorly placed masks, dozens gathered in very small spaces.
Be Svendsen, a Danish DJ who would have participated in one of the nights of the festival, told the The Daily Beast that he also contracted COVID-19 in heavenly Tulum. Another Mexican DJ assured the newspaper that he also learned of cases on the beaches of Tulum.
The American publication sought out the festival organizers for their version of events. He got no reply. Antonio Romero, administrator of a hospital in Tulum, told the newspaper that they received “several people” who attended the massive event with COVID-19.
The guidelines to follow to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are detailed on the festival’s official website. “The masks will be mandatory for everyone when they do not eat or drink within the event. Security will enforce these guidelines throughout the event, but we ask that everyone take responsibility for our collective health and safety, ”he says. But it was not respected, as related to The Daily Beast.
The Mexican government reported on Monday a total of 110,074 deaths and one million 182 thousand 249 cases of COVID-19 by registering 357 new deaths and 6 thousand 399 infections in the last day. When presenting the technical report, the Ministry of Health recognized that the number of estimated cases is one million 354 thousand 056 by including those that await a confirmatory test, although it argued that only 5 percent are active, which is equivalent to 67 thousand 513 people with symptoms in the past two weeks.
Overall hospitalization reached 40 percent nationally, with Mexico City leading the way with 75 percent of its beds occupied, the only state outside the security level. “This would be the only entity that is exceeding this 70 percent security level, which has also led it in recent weeks to increase its hospital reconversion and expansion work,” said José Luis Alomía, general director of Epidemiology. The official stated that seven other states also have more than 50 percent general occupancy: Guanajuato, State of Mexico, Durango, Hidalgo, Nuevo León, Coahuila and Baja California.
-With information from EFE.
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