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BYU-area apartments hold 'Hunger Games' competition involving COVID-19

Hunger Games BYU Apartments.jpg
Posted at 3:52 PM, Sep 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-17 20:43:29-04

PROVO, Utah — A social media page started a "Hunger Games" competition among BYU-area student apartments to see which complex accumulates the fewest COVID-19 cases.

However, a competition that means well could cause students who feel sick or have COVID symptoms to hide them in order to help win the contest.

The @byuchicks Instagram page posted information about the contest on Sept. 1 and has been "liked" by 483 people as of Thursday.

The contest involves 12 apartment complexes, which are called Tributes in honor of the "Hunger Games" movie series. In the movies, Tributes are residents from separate districts who must compete in the Hunger Games, a televised battle-to-the-death competition.

According to the social media post, the complexes face off against each other in weekly brackets, with the apartments recording the most COVID-19 cases being eliminated. The winning complex wins merchandise from Barstool Sports, which runs the @byuchicks site.

Should any student seriously be interested in winning the contest, they may be persuaded to hide their symptoms to win.

BYU officials have made the following statement in regards to the competition:

"While we have very little information about this competition, we share the concern expressed in your article that students would forego testing for a higher score. We would continue to expect our students to honestly report their symptoms through the Healthy Together App."