It was unclear exactly how many cases had been confirmed as of Wednesday evening. Steven Portnoy of CBS News, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said late Wednesday that “the number of cases that have been brought to my attention now totals less than 1 percent of dinner attendees.” He added that “many” social gatherings in Washington over the weekend had more lenient Covid protocols than the association’s dinner.

The dinner required proof of vaccination and a same-day negative test, and boosters were strongly encouraged. Some of the people reporting infections also said they had attended other gatherings over the weekend.

Attendees of the dinner expressed resignation as the number of confirmed cases grew over the course of the day on Wednesday.

“I’m yet another #WHCA weekend casualty,” Julia Ioffe, a founding partner and Washington correspondent at Puck News, announced on Twitter on Wednesday. “I knew I was taking a risk and, well, here we are!”