An Ohio nightclub has been cited for “egregious violations” of COVID-19 health orders after hundreds of fans attended an indoor Trey Songz concert on Saturday (December 5.)
Undercover agents observed roughly 500 people at the jam-packed, 15,000-square-foot nightspot in a Columbus shopping plaza, the Ohio Investigative Unit said in a statement.
One video posted to Instagram shows the R&B singer — who contracted COVID-19 himself in October — serenading the crowd huddled up to the stage with just one person seen wearing a face covering.
Photos also show the employees working behind the club’s bar were not wearing masks.
“Patrons were congregated throughout the premises with no attempts to maintain social distancing and no physical barriers in place,” authorities said. “Agents observed patrons standing, walking freely and sharing alcoholic beverages directly from the same bottle as they were passed between groups.”
City officials initially thought photos from the event were from 2019 because of how packed the club was, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
“Basically, it was just a concert environment,” Ohio Investigative Unit enforcement commander Eric Wolf told NBC News. “If you had taken that event and put it in 2019, it would have been pretty much the same concert, same event that was taking place last night.”
Ohio has reported 484,297 COVID-19 cases and 7,022 deaths as of Monday, online data shows.