“Ring in the New Year at White Party Puerto Vallarta: UNITY where restaurants, gyms, bars and clubs are open and ready to welcome you to the ultimate New Years weekend getaway!!!” read the online invitation for American party promoter Jeffrey Sanker’s annual New Year’s Eve circuit party, a large all-night dance event for gay men.
Local officials were putting pressure on Sanker as the party neared, according to the Los Angeles Blade. Puerto Vallarta hospitals were at or near 100 percent capacity, and the state of Jalisco, where the resort town is located, was being throttled by Covid-19, with a reported 65 percent positivity rate, according to local news reports.
