A patient in their 30s has reportedly died after attending a 'COVID party' in Texas and thinking coronavirus was a 'hoax'

• A healthcare official in San Antonio, Texas, says a patient in their 30s died from COVID-19 after attending a "COVID party."
• "This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus, and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected," Dr. Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children's Hospital, told the local outlet News4.
• "Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said, 'I think I made a mistake — I thought this was a hoax, but it's not,'" Appleby said.
• Appleby said she was making this case public to urge Bexar County residents, particularly young people, to "realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily."

A patient in their 30s is said to have died from COVID-19 after attending a "COVID party" in San Antonio, Texas.

A local healthcare official says the patient acknowledged initially thinking the novel coronavirus was a "hoax" and intentionally attending a party with an infected person.

"This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus, and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected," Dr. Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer for San Antonio's Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children's Hospital, told the local outlet WOAI NBC News Channel 4.

"Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said, 'I think I made a mistake — I thought this was a hoax, but it's not,'" Appleby said.

Appleby said she decided to make this case public to urge Bexar County residents to take the pandemic seriously — particularly young people, many of whom still seem to believe they cannot be seriously affected by the virus.

"It doesn't discriminate and none of us are invincible," Appleby said. "I don't want to be an alarmist, and we're just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily."

On Friday, WOAI reported that San Antonio's case count had reached 18,600. After a local teenager died, the death toll in Bexar County — which includes San Antonio and has a population of approximately 2 million — rose to 166.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio said just 10% of hospital beds were available.

Appleby did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.