Sundance Film Festival mandates COVID booster shot, will offer third dose to attendees

Amidst the growing threat of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Sundance Film Festival is offering measures for its attendees to stay safe. The organizers of the annual film festival are offering booster shots to all eligible attendees. Earlier the organizer of the film festival had announced that all the attendees including employees, volunteers, contractors, the general public, artists, partners, press, and industry had to show proof of three vaccination shots. 

Sundance Film Festival to offer booster shots 

As per a report by Variety, the Sundance Film Festival is considering offering a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to all eligible attendees. Though no formal announcement has been made regarding the initiative as of yet. Last week, the film festival shared new sets of rules, guidelines and banned food and drink. The prestigious festival has also mandated masks for the duration of film screenings. In the wake of growing cases of Omicron all over the world, the organizers also made it compulsory to show certificates of three vaccine doses. 

Sundance to set up vaccine verification and testing hubs

Additionally, Sundance has set up vaccine verification and testing hubs around the festival campus this year. Employees, volunteers and other people attending the festival will be required to be tested upon check-in at the event and will also be prompted to test again following 48 hours. The Sundance Film Festival will take place from January 20 to 30 in Park City, Utah.

Sundance is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with a record-breaking 46,660 attendees in 2016. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films, both feature films and short films, and a group of out-of-competition sections, including NEXT, New Frontier, Spotlight, Midnight, Sundance Kids, From the Collection, Premieres, and Documentary Premieres.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are rising at an alarming rate in the United States. As per People, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the country recorded a single-day record-breaking high of over 4,41,000 new cases on December 27. Also, several film festivals like the annual Palm Springs Film Festival, the film academy’s annual Governors Awards and the Critics Choice Awards were cancelled due to a surge in COVID cases. 

Image: AP