Until now, the test concerts had rather proven themselves: on May 29, the Indochine group gave a concert at the Accord Hotel Arena, with 3,900 people, against a control group of 1,900 people. If a few cases had been counted, it had been concluded that there was no excess risk of infection, with the wearing of a mask, regular hand disinfection and optimized ventilation. But at the beginning of July, three new test concerts performed in Spain resulted in a huge cluster, reports El Periodico.
2279 contaminations with Covid-19, instead of 842 expected
The study took the form of three concerts, within the framework of three distinct festivals: Vida, Cruïlla and Canet Rock. On these events, participating in the test, there were 49,570 spectators. It had been estimated that the number of potential cases would be around 842 patients following these meetings. But the contaminations far exceeded forecasts: 2,279 people fell ill with Covid-19.
However, the conditions were met to avoid them: each participant was tested before joining the public, via an antigen test, which was to prove negative. Everyone had to comply wearing a surgical mask, but the rest of the barrier gestures were not applied. No social distancing or special precautions around hand washing have been put in place. Four days later, a few positive cases were discovered. 14 days later, during the second test, the number of cases could be definitively fixed, it turned out to be 58% higher than expected.
For there to be so many contaminations, experts believe that antigen tests were unreliable. However, by having a negative result, the festival-goers tended to relax, believe the organizers. On the other hand, there would have been 271 people who knew they were positive and who would still have come to attend the concerts.
Source: Los festivales de música recorded a 58% más de contagios de lo esperado, El Periodico
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