SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Thousands are calling for South Padre Island to cancel this year’s spring break events in an effort to limit COVID-19 exposure, according to an online petition.
According to the online, nonbinding petition on change.org, more than 6,800 people have signed in support of the cancellation, as of Sunday afternoon. It’s unclear if those that signed in favor of the cancellation are all Texas residents.
The petition aims to reach 7,500 signatures and was launched Friday by user Adhlemy Sanchez.
Many Texas school districts have extended their spring breaks and temporarily closed their doors to reduce the risk of students getting exposed to the virus.
As of Sunday, all of the live music events on South Padre Island were still scheduled as planned, according to the PadreU Spring Break Vacations website.
The petition asks city officials to cancel this year’s events to keep spring breakers safe and healthy:
“Recent news has caused us to panic regarding COVID-19 (Coronavirus), but more so to take precautions. This is to bring to light measures local officials can take to do their part. How do major conferences, concerts, sporting events cancel all public outings and Spring Break still be ON at South Padre Island, Texas, this and all other concert venues and events SHOULD HAVE canceled as well. Major corporations and events have taken cuts because of this to avoid further outbreak. We don’t have any known cases in the Rio Grande Valley and we want to keep it this way! Just because students are not sick doesn’t mean they are not carriers and can potentially put other people at risk. We still have many Winter Texans enjoying our area, they are the most at risk for the Coronavirus. It’s simple lead by example, how irresponsible to not take into account how much further this can spread and affect our own community.”
To read more about the online petition, click here.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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