Obama cancels 60th birthday party with hundreds of guests after concern that it could spread COVID-19

• Barack Obama planned to host hundreds of people at an outdoor birthday party on Martha's Vineyard.
• Citing Delta-variant concerns, a spokeswoman said it would now be "only family and close friends."
• She described it as the Obamas deciding to "significantly scale back the event."

Former US President Barack Obama canceled his plans for a 60th birthday party after backlash and complaints that it could fuel the spread of the coronavirus.

Hannah Hankins, a spokeswoman for Obama, confirmed the event change to a smaller one in a statement to Insider on Wednesday morning.

"This outdoor event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with covid safeguards in place.

"Due to the new spread of the Delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends," she said.

"He's appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon."

Obama had planned to have a huge outdoor party on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard on Saturday.

Sources had told Axios that hundreds of guests were expected and that precautions had been taken.

Guests were asked to be vaccinated and would need a negative coronavirus test, and there would be someone in charge of making sure coronavirus rules were followed, the outlet said.

Some invitees had already decided against going to the event; The New York Timesnamed the current White House chief of staff, Ronald Klain, as one such person.

The former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who worked to defend Donald Trump against impeachment, had told The Times that Obama should cancel or postpone the event.

"Everyone is talking about it and no one is talking about it positively," said Dershowitz, who lives on Martha's Vineyard. "Some people are making excuses for it. No one is saying it's a good idea."

President Joe Biden also said he would not be attending, though he did not publicly cite public-health concerns.