BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Five thousand music lovers are ready to attend a rock concert in Barcelona on Saturday after passing a COVID-19 screening the same day to test their effectiveness in preventing virus outbreaks at events great cultural.
The show of the Spanish rock group Love of Lesbian has the special permission of the Spanish health authorities. While the rest of the country is limited to gatherings of up to four people indoors, concertgoers will be able to mingle freely, although face masks are mandatory.
People with heart disease, cancer or those who have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19 in recent weeks have been asked not to register. Ticket buyers have chosen between three locations in Barcelona where they have to do a quick antigen test on Saturday morning. Those with negative results receive a code on their mobile phone that validates their ticket for the show at the Palau Sant Jordi in the city, at 19:00
Organizers say it is the first such trade event in Europe during the pandemic.
The show is sold out. Tickets, ranging from 23-28 euros (27-33 USD), include the cost of the test and the high-quality face mask, which is mandatory unless you eat or drink in designated areas.
The concert is supported by local authorities and experts from the Barcelona Foundation for the Fight against AIDS and Infectious Diseases, which also organized a case study around a concert of less than 500 people. in December. They said that the results of the preliminary case study showed that pre-screening with antigenic tests and the use of facial masks managed to prevent infections during the concert, despite the fact that there are no rules of social distance.
“This is another small step towards being able to organize concerts and cultural events” during the pandemic, said Dr. Boris Revollo, the virologist involved in the design of health protocols.
In addition to being 10 times larger than the December concert, this time there will be no control group maintained outside the concert hall.
Instead, the concertgoers agreed that public health authorities could inform the Revollo team if they come with the coronavirus in the weeks after the concert. With this information, the Revollo team will analyze the infection rates among the 5,000 spectators, compared to the general population, to see if there are discrepancies that could indicate a contagion at the concert.
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