The mayor of Lakeway, Texas, a city in the Lake Travis area outside Austin, is asking teens who attended a June 20 party known as "Pong Fest" to self-isolate as the Covid-19 case rate continues to climb in the area.
"The large gathering of teenagers took place in a community just outside of the City of Lakeway," Mayor Sandy Cox wrote in an email to CNN Wednesday. "We have asked that anyone who attended the gathering and those they live with to self-isolate and contact their physician."
Cox said there were a number of infected students at the party, some of whom "didn't know they were positive until after the party.”
The Austin Public Health Department (APH) said the gathering included "up to 300 teenagers" and confirmed to CNN that a number "have now received positive test results."
"We are asking that participation in gatherings be mentioned for contact tracing purposes when people are getting tested," Shelly Parks, spokesperson for the Austin Homeland Security & Emergency Management, said Wednesday in a statement to CNN. "Epidemiologists are asking that participation in gatherings be mentioned during their contact tracing investigations because the virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalized or dying."
Parks said because of medical privacy law known as HIPAA, the agency would not be disclosing the number of cases resulting from Pong Fest.
Lakeway has had 105 cases, 50 of which are currently active, Cox said.
"This is the highest point we have been in our area," Cox said during a Facebook Live event on June 25. "Unfortunately our case load is probably going to increase."
Cox, who made repeated calls in her June 25 Facebook Live for her constituents to wear masks and socially distance, said the city has been working with the local hospital, Baylor Scott & White, to ensure both the party-goers and anyone they have interacted with get tested.