Art With Me, a festival in Tulum that offers an experience much like Burning Man, became a COVID superspreader. Art With Me is a 5-day journey with over 120 artists, 40 musical acts, and 50 wellness activities. The festival has COVID guidelines outlined on their website. It states that masks will be mandatory for all inside the event unless attendees are eating, and all guests and staff will follow CDC regulated social distancing guidelines. Additionally, it states that security will be enforcing these guidelines throughout the event.
However, it’s reported by attendees that masks weren’t worn and COVID guidelines weren’t enforced. Art With Me’s recap video and tagged posts displays people congregated together without masks on.
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Several attendees brought back COVID-19 with them to New York City. A private testing company, Checkmate Health Strategies, stated that over half of its recent positive cases in New York were directly correlated with Art With Me.
“I would say that 60 to 70 percent of my positives in the last couple weeks in New York City have been a direct result of either people coming back from Art With Me — or who have been directly exposed to someone who attended Art With Me,” states founder, Eleonora Walczak.
An administrator at the Hospital de Tulum said that “multiple people” who attended the event were admitted with COVID. With almost all tourists from North America and South American countries.
So perhaps this will serve as a reminder that COVID remains a major threat right now. Everyone should still take safety precautions regardless of which country they’re in. As eager as everyone is for live events to resume and return to normal, it’s still necessary to stay safe and avoid spreading COVID.
