A woman who contracted coronavirus along with 15 of her friends says they were "careless" after going out to celebrate the end of lockdown.
Erika Crisp said she tested positive for Covid-19 after celebrating with a group of pals in Jacksonville, Florida.
The healthcare worker, 40, was sick for eight days, she told News4Jax, adding that the rest of her group also found they had the disease.
She now believes that businesses opened too soon - and called on people to make sure they stick to social distancing rules.
The venue where they went celebrating - Lynch's Irish Pub - voluntarily shut down for cleaning, but said it would remain closed if staff members test positive.
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Erika said that she and her friends were jubilant at being allowed to go out again after weeks indoors "doing everything the right way".
She said the only common link between the friends diagnosed with coronavirus was the one night out.
Erika said she regrets going out, admitting she and her friends had a "out of sight, out of mind" mentality.
She said she and her friends had been "careless", adding: "The state opens back up and said everybody was fine, so we took advantage of that."
Neither she or her friends wore face masks, she said.
Erika said: “We should be wearing masks. We should be social distancing.
“It was too soon to open everything back up.”
More than 118,000 coronavirus deaths have been recorded across the US since the start of pandemic.
The US has so far seen a confirmed 2.16 million cases of the killer virus.
