A concert is being held to learn how COVID-19 spreads at large events. Here’s how
One of the worst activities you can do in the middle of a pandemic is attend a large gathering with thousands of attendees — but researchers in Germany want people to do just that.
It’s not for recreation: The goal is to examine just how dangerous those events really are, especially as parts of the world prepare to return to normalcy.
For a project called “RESTART-19,” scientists with the University Medical Center Halle (Saale) plan on throwing a concert with 4,000 fans and a German music artist in an indoor arena to simulate how people move, gather and spread potentially coronavirus-infected germs.
But there’s a catch: participants must test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus driving the pandemic, and wear a mask at all times aside from snack and outdoor breaks, according to their website.
The team says data on how respiratory diseases spread in large events is “sparse overall and practically nonexistent for COVID-19,” so they want to fill in the gaps.
“The corona pandemic paralyzes the event industry. As long as there is a risk of contagion, no major concerts and trade fairs or sports events are allowed to take place,” Dr. Armin Willingmann, minister of economics for the German state of Saxony-Anhalt and a science professor, said in a news release. “That is why it is so important to find out which technical or organizational framework can effectively minimize the risk of infection.”
The project will be broken up into three different scenarios: one that resembles pre-pandemic times with 4,000 visitors and no other measures in place, another with the same amount of attendees but with “hygiene concepts” and social distancing, and a last scenario with about 2,000 participants maintaining a 5-foot distance.
In each experiment, all participants are required to apply fluorescent hand disinfectant regularly, which researchers will later search for with ultraviolet light to detect frequently-touched surfaces, according to their website.
Test subjects will also be given a “contact tracer” that will record the “intensity in terms of distance, duration and frequency of contact,” according to the release. Thirty “anchors” will be placed in the arena that will measure the position of all 4,000 participants in real-time.
And only people who have had no contact with COVID-19 patients and have not shown symptoms within the last two days before the concert can attend, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, artist Tim Bendzko will be performing live.
“Do your part, too, support us and register for the study. We’ll see you on August 22,” Bendzko said in the release.
The researchers will also learn how the journey to the concert plays a role in viral transmission before the event begins.
The experiment will begin with check-in at a parking lot where participants will hop on a tram to get to the arena.
“You are not necessarily sitting in the same part of the event hall with those you have had contact with in a tram...there are already risks of infection before the actual event location,” project manager Dr. Stefan Moritz from the University Medical Center Halle (Saale) said in the release.
The team said, “there is a theoretical risk for you to become infected with COVID-19. However, the risk can be classified as very low.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 9:35 AM with the headline "A concert is being held to learn how COVID-19 spreads at large events. Here’s how."
