A 30-year-old male died at a Texas hospital Friday after being infected with the coronavirus at a "COVID party."
To test if the virus is real, the man purposely tried to catch COVID-19 by attending the gathering with an infected person, the New York Times reported.
The man's final words just before he died at San Antonio's Methodist Hospital were, "?I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it?s not," according to the New York Times.
The man's identity has not been made public. Further details about his death, including how many people attended the party and how long the man was hospitalized with COVID-19, are also unavailable at this time.
Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, said she was sharing the story of the Texas man?s death to warn others.
Although "coronavirus parties" have been reported in states such as Washington, Kentucky and Alabama, some experts and public officials are skeptical that the parties are real.
Texas on Sunday saw the eleventh-largest single-day increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Statewide, cases increased by 2.73 percent for a total of 262,753 cases, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis. An additional 57 new deaths were reported, bringing the state's death count to 3,213.
The Houston region's count increased by 2.56 percent to 63,864 cases total. Four additional deaths were reported; the region's death count is now at 646.