Morelos is currently orange on the national risk level stoplight map but one wouldn’t know it for all the secret weddings and other events going on in the city of Jiutepec in violation of the state’s social distancing regulations.

According to the newspaper Milenio, large social gatherings are going on repeatedly in the municipality and authorities have given up trying to shut them down.

One such event was an outdoor wedding involving about 150 people last Saturday.

In video footage, wedding guests are crowded together, drinking and dancing to live music and few are wearing face masks. Milenio said organizers did not take participants’ temperature to check for signs of Covid-19 infection and that attempts to call 911 and have authorities attend were ignored.

The report also claimed that 911 services have given up responding to such calls in the face of so many social events going on.

Party venues and musical groups are quietly offering their services despite pandemic restrictions, which will only be eased once the state moves to yellow on the coronavirus risk map.

Owners of event facilities admitted to advertising for customers despite the regulations. 

Jiutepec officials later told Milenio that local Civil Protection head Francisco Javier Barona Téllez went to check on Saturday’s wedding but was not successful in shutting it down. 

Meanwhile, a wedding in Guanajuato, also on Saturday, cost the facility in which it was held a fine of 25,000 pesos (US $1,135). Officials were alerted to a party at the Centro Fox, a facility in San Francisco del Rincón operated by former president Vicente Fox and his wife.

They found that coronavirus protocols were not being observed.

Sources: Milenio (sp)