Shenseea’s Miami Concert Flagged As COVID-19 ‘Super-Spreader’

A Wynwood, Miami concert headlined by Shenseea, which was held on Saturday night with hundreds of revelers in attendance, is being fingered by health authorities as being among the potential ‘super-spreaders’ of the COVID-19 virus in Florida, according to Local 10 news.

The event made it to the Local 10′s Sunday news programme, This Week in South Florida, which showed clips of the Foreplay singer deejaying and gyrating on a stage, surrounded by a throng of her cheering ‘Shenyengs’ who had flocked stage-side.

“The positivity rate now right now is hovering near 10 percent and experts say that is alarming especially considering doctors are seeing more people coming through the doors at hospitals with COVID-19.  And all of his is happening as we get wind of an event over the weekend that has all the parameters of what could be considered just a super-spreader event,” news reporter Terrell Forney said.

“Hundreds of people were packed in side by side Saturday night at an outdoor concert in Wynwood. They were there to see Jamaican dancehall artist Shenseea performing, but without any obvious enforcement of COVID-19 social distancing rules.   It is one example of why experts believe that South Florida, among other places around the country, are speeding toward an unsettling peak in coronavirus cases,” the reporter added.

Local 10 also showcased an interview with medical doctor Aileen Marty, a professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, who said doctors on the frontlines ‘are already seeing a disturbing trend’.

Dr. Marty said “more than anything, it comes down to people not adhering to the simple public heath requests and a false sense of security”.  Noting that the problem was “very serious” she also said that Miami-Dade County has the seventh highest numbers of deaths in all counties in the United States and the third-highest county cases in the country.

According to Local 10, the numbers are reverting steadily towards what it was like when the virus was just detected and categorized as ‘widespread and uncontrolled” resulting in  mandatory shutdowns.

The newscast said that the rise in cases has already impacted South Florida hospitals. In fact, state records now show that not only are people infected with COVID-19 being admitted at the highest rate in several months, but that the positive case rate is also at its highest point in 14 days.   Another tell-tale sign that all is not well, they said, is that lines are long once again at some COVID-19 testing sites.

Shenseea is not the only Dancehall entertainer to have come under scrutiny after headlining concerts which supposedly defy COVID-19 prevention guidelines.

In September, her compatriot Dexta Daps also made news headlines after he led two crowded concerts, one in Brooklyn and the other in New Jersey.

The New York Post had said the venue for Dexta’s Brooklyn event attracted hundreds of people and that a video footage shared to Instagram showed the Seaview Gardens native “hyping up” the fans who were  packed tightly at an ‘undisclosed outdoor venue’.

The following day, Dexta reportedly headlined an afternoon concert in New Jersey, which had an attendance of 1500 patrons.

In the meantime, the Local 10 news report said health experts are gravely concerned about the fact that there is a surge in COVID cases, when the US is on the verge of celebrating its Thanksgiving Day holiday when families typically come together to engage in a feast.

As a consequence, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that Americans who are considering entertaining people who do not live in their household during the Thanksgiving celebrations, among other things, limit the number of attendees as much as possible to allow for the six-feet physical distancing.

Other recommendations are that they avoid direct contact, including handshakes and hugs, with persons who are not from their household and host outdoor rather than indoor gatherings as much as possible, and require guests to wear masks when not eating or drinking.