Some young adults in Tuscaloosa, Ala., are throwing parties where people with COVID-19 attend and the first person to get infected receives a payout, CNN reports.
Infected people are urged to attend the parties so others can intentionally contract the virus, City Council member Sonya McKinstry told CNN. Physicians' offices and the state have confirmed this information, Ms. McKinstry said.
The first person to receive a COVID-19 diagnosis from a physician after the exposure wins the money made off the ticket sales, according to Ms. McKinstry. The city is working to break up such parties and also passed a mask ordinance that goes into effect next week.
The state has reported about 39,000 COVID-19 cases and nearly 1,000 deaths, officials with the Alabama Health Department told CNN.
Younger patients are increasingly making up a larger proportion of COVID-19 cases in many areas. Half of all cases in Arizona are people ages 20 to 44, Bloomberg reports. In Florida, the median age is 37, down from 65 in March. In Texas' Hays County, people in their 20s make up 50 percent of the cases. On July 1, more than 50,000 new U.S. infections were reported, the largest daily case count to date.