Thousands of people crammed into a church parking lot in Valencia, Calif., on New Year’s Eve for a concert and worship service organized by Sean Feucht, a Christian activist and singer who has been holding events across the country to protest restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19. Attendees, most without face coverings, stood “shoulder to shoulder while jumping, singing, and shouting” during the event at Higher Vision Church, the Los Angeles Times reports. Many of them came from out of state, per CBS Los Angeles, disregarding warnings that large gatherings could become super spreader events. “I have those concerns,” an attendee from Arizona said, “but this is something I really feel I need to be a part of and so I’m here, and we’re all gonna get the virus at some point, it’s a virus.”
The New Year’s Eve event came as the virus races unchecked through California, which announced a record 585 deaths in a single day on Friday. At overwhelmed hospitals in the state, ambulances have waited hours to offload COVID patients, who are overflowing into hallways and gift shops, the AP reports. Officials say they are monitoring events like the ones Feucht has organized, but there isn’t much else they can do, per NBC Los Angeles. “There are constitutionally protected rights, both religion and protest, which clearly he has used and exercised, but just because we do have the right to do things, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do,” LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "So I would encourage him first and foremost to come back, have a good concert after this pandemic is done.” (More COVID-19 stories.)
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