Exasperated Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear felt he had to state the obvious at a news conference on Tuesday: Don't have a "coronavirus party."
Beshear announced that there were 39 new coronavirus cases and 163 overall in the state, including one person who contracted COVID-19 at what he called a "coronavirus party."
"This is the part where I, the person that tells everybody to be calm, have to remain calm myself,” Beshear said. "Anyone who goes to something like this may think that they are indestructible, but it’s someone else’s loved one that they are going to hurt.
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"We are battling for the health and the lives of our parents and our grandparents. Don’t be callous as to intentionally go to something and expose yourself to something that will hurt other people. We ought to be much better than that.”
Beshear did not specify how many people were at the particular gathering or when it took place. But he said it was a group of people in their 20s who got together despite health officials asking people to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the virus.
"This is one that makes me mad, and it should make you mad,” he said.
While younger people have not been shown to be at a higher risk for coronavirus complications, they can still spread it to people over 60, where it can be much more life-threatening.
News of a "coronavirus party" had people doing a collective eye roll on Twitter.
Beshear showed sympathy for the person infected but made it clear that any similar gatherings had to stop.
"We should forgive that person, but no more of these anywhere, statewide, ever for any reason,'' he said.
The party in Kentucky marked the latest instance of younger people ignoring state and federal guidance about staying home and social distancing. Coronavirus has sickened more than 55,000 people nationwide and resulted in more than 800 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Scenes of people in their 20s reveling in close proximity on the beaches of Florida have made national headlines.
This week, one spring breaker publicly apologized for saying in a TV interview that he was not going to let coronavirus "stop me from partying."