Health officials hear of ‘COVID parties’ near UCF

School says it has ‘no indication’ they’ve happened

State health officials in Orange County are following up on reports of socalled COVID-19 parties at the University of Central Florida, but haven’t yet been able to find direct evidence that such gatherings have happened.

Dr. Raul Pino, the local state health officer, said his trace investigators have heard of parties as they have tracked infections popping up near the unive rsity ’s east Orange County campus, but haven’t linked cases to them. Parties could accelerate the spread of the virus among young people, and eventually, older, more vulnerable populations, he said.

“We have heard of such things through our trace investigations. We haven’t been able to prove such. But we continue to explore,” Pino said. “If that is happening, it’s absolutely irresponsible to consciously and knowingly expose anyone to an infectious disease that has proven to be deadly … it’s a matter of time before it circles back to the older population.”

A spokesman for the university said it has no evidence of such parties, though other colleges and universities around the country have grappled with combatting parties in the age of COVID-19.

“We’ve seen no indication of ‘COVID parties’ involving UCF students,” said Mark Schleub, a UCF spokesman.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings also decried the reports at a time when the county is at one of its lowest sustained levels of infections and officials are calling for people to continue wearing facial coverings, social distancing and frequent hand washing.

“I hope that’s not true,” Demings said. “It’s like playing Russian Roulette with your life and the lives of others.”

UCF rescinded a suspension on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity last week, which it previously accused members of having “a large social gathering” at an unspecified offcampus location and had “willfully disregarded” the university’s social distancing policies.

But the allegations were based, in part, on a six-second video posted to social media by an alumnus who recently graduated, said John Kelley, the president of the chapter’s housing corporation. Two current fraternity officers who also were accused of attending the party told the university they were not at the event, Kelley said. As a result, the university rescinded the suspension on Thursday.

In addition, the chapter spent $1,000 before members returned to install hand sanitizer dispensers and clean at SAE’s off-campus house to help stop the spread of the virus, he said.

“We were trying to set the right tone and do the right thing,” Kelley said.

The upcoming weekend presents the latest test for Central Florida’s efforts to tamp down the highly contagious virus. Bars reopened Monday, and this is the first weekend they will pour drinks since mid-June when the state closed them amid rising caseloads.

When cases surged, health officials linked hundreds of new infections to people who been at crowded bars both near UCF and in downtown Orlando. The university also plays its first football game of the season, a road contest at Georgia Tech, which could prompt local social gatherings.

Demings said state regulators could be checking in on bars this weekend, and wouldn’t say if his business compliance teams would be as well.

“If I were a bar owner, I would assume that would be the case,” he said.

Demings also said he was reassigning 45 employees from the Orange County Convention Center to the county’s utilities department, which has about 120 vacancies it needs to fill.

The move will slash the convention center’s payroll 35%. The changes start Monday and will last at least until the end of the year, or until events return to the center, he said. When they return to their normal jobs at the convention center, they’ll have their old jobs, Demings said.

Looking ahead to next month, Demings and Pino also said they don’t expect traditional Halloween celebrations will be possible this year since knocking on strangers’ doors and collecting candy could play a role in spreading the virus.

“I have serious concerns about supporting the traditional trick or treating that occurs because knocking on people’s doors and accepting something out of people’s homes, I don’t know how you do that,” Demings said.