Ariel King January 18th, 2021 - 1:09 PM
A video of Bow Wow performing onstage to a crowd of unmasked audience members has been making its rounds on social media. The event reportedly took place in Houston, Texas on Friday, January 15, in celebration of club promoter Larry Morrow’s birthday.
The short clip shared on Twitter shows a crowd of people, mostly unmasked and drinking, packed together as they start singing lyrics to his song “Like You,” Bow Wow jumping on stage to complete the track. Nearly 100 people can be seen in the video, all standing close together while only a handful wear masks.
Bow Wow performing in Houston last night pic.twitter.com/ZzcVCmYoVU
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) January 16, 2021
On the day of the event, 24,594 new COVID cases were found in Houston alone. Houston had crossed the threshold for re-opening on January 5, which required the city to renter lockdown after COVID-19 hospitalization surged above 15 percent. The lockdown mandates that business and restaurants needed to operate at only 50 percent occupancy while other businesses such as bars would need to close. The rate of people testing positive for COVID-19 has been increasing in Houston since they were mandated to shut down on January 5.
Houston had its highest number of positive cases on December 11, when 58, 256 people tested positive for COVID-19. The state of Texas currently has more than 2.11 million positive cases of the coronavirus, and has had 32,581 deaths. The United States currently has 23.8 million coronavirus cases, and has seen more than 396,000 deaths. California currently has the most cases, however Texas comes in second.
Bow Wow has not been the only artist to perform despite COVID guidelines this year. Smash mouth, Trapt, Buckcherry and many more had performed at this year’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota back in August. The rally was eventually linked to several thousand new coronavirus cases. The Chainsmokers also performed at a non-socially distanced drive-in concert, with promoters eventually fined by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
