4th of July parties seem to be spark that is pushing up numbers in our neighborhood and school district. Not exclusively, but it feels like a new case comes with "...and they were at a 4th of July party". A lot of HS and college age kids spreading it as well.
I think this is where people are starting to conflate "outdoor spread" with "kids being WAY too close to one another spread." Since so many indoor venues are closed, of course the kids are having to party outdoors quite a bit. Plus, it's summer, and that's what kids do anyway. But I could see quite a bit of the spread coming more from sharing drinks, sharing beer bongs, sharing food, not washing hands, touching faces, touching every other body part, making out, hooking up-- those are all quite a bit closer activities, than we had for OUR 4th of July get-together, where we had eight people at my house, family and friends, hanging out on the back patio or in the pool, but always several feet from one another, and not sharing food/drink/containers/etc. And of course folks only going indoors to use the bathroom.
We did the same for Mother's day, Father's Day, and Memorial Day. No COVID spread, no issues at all.
But last weekend out on the lake, I saw dozens of boats with 9-14 HS/college/early 20s kids packed onto those boats, no masks, partying, drinking beer, bonging beer, all up in each others' business touching and stuff-- yeah, that's the kind of outdoor activity that could certainly lead to the spread. But that's a lot more than just standing next to one another.