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COVID-19 cases tied to Crystal Gardens reception grow to 9; some also were at Beaumont picnic

Detroit Free Press - 7/31/2020

Did coronavirus spread to nine people at a wedding reception July 18 in Southgate or did the outbreak begin among health care workers and their families at a picnic the day before?

It's a question that might never definitively be answered, said Michael McElrath, a spokesman for the Wayne County Public Health Division.

But what is known is that nine cases of COVID-19 have now been tied to the wedding reception.

About 60 people attended the afternoon celebration inside Crystal Gardens, said Mort Meisner, a spokesman for the banquet hall and president of Royal Oak-based Mort Meisner Associates, though 100-125 people were invited. The hall can seat as many as 1,200.

The guests were seated six to a table, and spaced out to accommodate social distancing guidelines. The food was plated and served as it would be at a restaurant, and there was no dancing, Meisner said.

Of those who attended, five people who contracted coronavirus also are Beaumont Health employees who attended an outdoor picnic July 17 at a park in Canton. They tested positive for the virus on July 23, McElrath said.

"No one knows where they got the virus," he said. "We don't know if they got it at the wedding or the picnic or if they got it beforehand. It could have been when they went to Kroger and somebody didn't want to wear a mask. ... It could have been anywhere."

But Wayne County health officials found that only the Beaumont employees who attended the wedding reception have gotten sick, McElrath said.

For that reason, there's no public health investigation underway of COVID-19 spread at the July 17 Beaumont picnic, he said, urging anyone who attended the reception to self-quarantine, seek coronavirus testing and call the Public Health Division at 734-727-7078 to report their contacts.

"If the Beaumont picnic had its own cases not tied to Crystal Gardens, then we would launch a separate investigation," he said. "But it doesn't."

The picnic was an outdoor celebration to welcome new medical residents, said Mark Geary, a spokesman for Beaumont Health.

About 60 people were there, and everyone who attended brought their own chairs. The event was catered, and everyone who attended was wearing a mask when they weren't eating. They followed social distancing guidelines, too.

"There is not a single person, to our knowledge, who has tested positive for COVID who did not go to the wedding and only went to the picnic," Geary said.

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The picnic also followed guidelines issued under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. It allows as many as 100 people to gather outside using social distancing and mask-wearing in most of the Lower Peninsula. But indoors, only 10 people are allowed to gather in one space.

"Regardless of whether they got it at the picnic or not, Crystal Gardens wasn't supposed to have a wedding reception" with so many people, McElrath said.

Meisner said the executive order limiting indoor gatherings to 10 people isn't fair to banquet halls, many of which operate like restaurants. Restaurants are allowed to operate at 50% capacity under another of Whitmer's executive orders associated with the pandemic.

"We think it's unfair to single out catering halls, who are serving the same function as a restaurant," Meisner said.

He added that every employee working at Crystal Gardens on the day of the wedding has been tested for COVID-19.

"Nobody has the virus," Meisner said. "Also, everyone was/is screened before they are allowed to work."

Restaurants, McElrath explained, are different than banquet halls in some key ways when it comes to disease transmission.

Most people go to restaurants with their immediate family members and close contacts and sit together in an isolated group at a table, McElrath explained. At a wedding reception or other banquet, people might be seated together who don't really know one another, and there's mingling that doesn't happen among tables at a restaurant.

"For example, I'm not going to go over to the people sitting in the next booth at Denny's and bother them," he said.

McElrath said the health division hasn't penalized Crystal Gardens or any banquet hall for violating the executive order yet.

"Wayne County is not trying to vilify anybody," he said. "We understand that people were confused. We are sending out letters to the establishments to clarify, to provide technical assistance, support, to answer questions about the order. We'll walk them through that.

"We are a partner with these businesses. We are helping. We are all in this together, so we encourage businesses to reach out."

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: COVID-19 cases tied to Crystal Gardens reception grow to 9; some also were at Beaumont picnic

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