Obama scales back big birthday bash amid Covid worries

The change of plans announced Wednesday, Obama’s actual birthday, comes as Biden administration officials have warned the public about the delta variant becoming the dominant Covid strain in the U.S.

Hundreds of people were expected to attend the party, including former Obama administration officials, Democratic donors and some celebrities. George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg were reportedly to be among 475 guests.

Several Republicans criticized Obama for holding the event, including Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who tweeted over the weekend that if former President Donald Trump had scheduled such a celebration, Democrats would have excoriated him.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified its face mask guidelines again last week amid a surge in delta variant cases, recommending people in places with high transmission rates wear masks indoors, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated. That change came after a study that focused on a cluster of Covid cases in Provincetown, Mass., on the tip of Cape Cod.

A former spokesman for Obama when he served in the White House, Tommy Vietor, suggested in a tweet that the outdoor event wasn’t a big deal, especially given that Martha’s Vineyard is an island nowhere near Provincetown.

It remains unclear how many people the Obamas plan to host and who has been invited to the party.

This article originally appeared in NBC News