Coronavirus: How the rich party on through pandemic

Private jets, personal physicians, rapid test results and parties in palatial compounds: the wealthy kick their heels despite coronavirus.

The party begins with cocktails and a nurse who comes around administering a test for the coronavirus, which offers a result in 15 minutes. Once the drinkers have tested negative for COVID-19 they may go inside for dinner.

This account of the soirees of a Los Angeles billionaire has been offered as fresh evidence of how the wealthiest Americans are managing during the time of coronavirus. Some were clubbing together to hire palatial compounds in Palm Springs, Los Angeles and in Silicon Valley as party houses, while others were jetting from city to city to stay ahead of the surge of infections, according to Vanity Fair.

The Los Angeles billionaire and dinner party host was said to have banned his guests from posting any photographs on social media, where such images have occasionally provoked suspicions that wealthy Americans have been less affected by the pandemic.

The Hamptons is an exclusive getaway for New Yorkers. Picture: Jerritt Clark/Getty Images

Video of a party in the Hamptons emerged last month featuring a DJ set from David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs. A spokesman for the company said social distancing protocols were followed and Mr Solomon had taken part because it was for charity, leaving before it ended. But video clips of a large crowd mingling maskless under the lights prompted an outcry and an investigation by New York’s health department.

Many hosts are said to be adhering to the same pre-dinner etiquette as the Los Angeles billionaire, by bringing in a doctor capable of performing rapid coronavirus tests.

Demand up for private jets

“We’ve gone to these private, private, private events, where they have me sign a ‘nothing you see in this house can be leaked’ document,” Dr Asma Rashid, head of a medical concierge service in the Hamptons, told The New York Times. “This is still a party town.”

She said she performs tests on guests as they arrive in their cars. They wait for half an hour, before the doctor returns with their results and tells them whether or not they can enter.

While private doctors have reported a rush of business, private jet vendors are said to be as busy as bicycle shops, with a vast new roster of clients. NetJets, which sells part shares in private jets, boasts of a sudden broadening of its membership.

Provate jet companies report record sales. Picture: Supplied

“They say they have had more first-time flyers in the last 60 days than in all of last year,” Dan Jennings, an aircraft broker for the Private Jet Company, said. “The jet companies are reporting record sales.”

By his calculations, there is a shortage. “There are 80,000 US citizens worth $US50 million or more,” he said. “We’ve got demand outpacing supply. In the entire private jet industry there are only 3000 [jets] a year to trade.”

The new customers were looking for aircraft under about $US5 million, he said.

It is for people who have a place in Palm Beach and in Aspen and still want to get there without riding on a commercial aircraft, he said. “They are coming out of the woodwork.”

Palm Beach, Florida, is another private haven for the wealthy. Picture: Supplied

The Times