FOUNTAIN INN, S.C. — (AP) — Days after playing Santa for special needs children, a South Carolina man tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
About 11 families visited “Sensory Santa” event on Dec. 13, and all were notified after the man’s test came back positive on Wednesday, Fountain Inn city administrator Shawn Bell told the Greenville News.
The city said on its webpage that the man learned after the event that he had been exposed to the virus.
Bell said the event was outdoors. A rope separated the children from Santa, who did not wear a mask, he said.
“We obviously regret that this has happened, but we were trying to do something nice for the community and especially for a segment of the community that often goes overlooked,” he said.
On Sunday, the state reported that 2,919 new infections had been confirmed, for a total of 250,386. It said 4,529 people have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, with 16 of those deaths newly confirmed.
About 22.9 percent of all people tested had the virus, according to the state website.
Fountain Inn is a city of about 10,400 located about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southeast of Greenville.
Cox Media Group
