18 members of one family tested positive for the coronavirus after a surprise birthday party in Texas

• Eighteen family members tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, after eight of them attended a surprise birthday party in Carrollton, Texas, on May 30.
• Two elderly grandparents and a breast cancer patient have been hospitalized because of the outbreak.
• Family member Ron Barbosa, a volunteer EMT who did not attend the party as a precaution, told KHOU the party was for his daughter-in-law, and that it was his parents and sister who were hospitalized.

Eighteen members of the same family tested positive for the coronavirus after eight of them attended a surprise 30th birthday party at the end of May.

The party happened on May 30 in Carrollton, Texas, and those who were infected include two elderly grandparents and a breast cancer patient who are now hospitalized.

Family member Ron Barbosa, a volunteer EMT who is married to a doctor and did not attend the party, told KHOU that the celebration was for his daughter-in-law, and 25 people attended.

Barbosa said his nephew hosted the party and was unknowingly infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

He said that his nephew also went golfing with relatives before the party, and interacted with seven family members who then contracted the virus and passed it on to 10 other family members, including two young children.

"Next thing you know, the two nephews that basically live next door to him, they get the same cough and diarrhea, body aches, and they start getting sick," Barbosa told Buzzfeed News. "By the 6th [of June], there was a lot of symptoms. And by the 9th, people are getting really, really bad. And by the 13th, [my family] had to take my sister and my mom to the hospital."

The three people who are hospitalized — the elderly couple and the cancer patient — are Barbosa's parents and his sister.

Barbosa told WFAA that the party had followed current state health regulations, but he and his wife didn't go to the party as a precaution during the coronavirus pandemic.

"When people started getting sick, we really let everyone have it," Barbosa told WFAA. "We knew this was going to happen, I mean, this whole time this has been going on we've been terrified."

Barbosa told KHOU that his sister, Kathy, is recovering, and his mother, Carole, has been released from the hospital. He said his father, Frank, has been hospitalized in the ICU since June 17.

"My dad's hanging on by a thread," Barbosa said. "They're saying this is one of the last straws for my dad."

After being one of the first states to ease lockdown orders, Texas has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, and the situation has caused so much concern that Gov. Greg Abbott decided Friday to put a pause on reopening the state's economy.