People gather to attend a rock concert in Barcelona amid pandemic
Five thousand music lovers attended a rock concert in Barcelona on March 27. The audience had to undergo the COVID-19 test the same day.
- World News
- 2 min read
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The music lovers attended a rock concert in Barcelona on March 27. The show by the Spanish rock group Love of Lesbian had special permission from Spanish health authorities. To attend the event, the audience had to undergo the COVID-19 test on the same day as the concert. The organisers had given a high-quality face mask to the audience which they had to wear during the concert.
The audience of the concert had the option of choosing between three venues in Barcelona where they could undergo a rapid antigen test on March 27. The people with negative COVID-19 reports got a code on their mobiles that validated their ticket for the show. The people with heart disease, cancer or those who had been in contact with COVID-19 patient in recent weeks were asked not to sign up. The price of tickets ranged from 23 to 28 euros that included the cost of the test and the high-quality mask. The show was fully sold out and the organizers said that it was the first commercial event of this size held in Europe during the pandemic. Singer Santi Balmes during the concert told the crowd that they are performing as a band after a year and a half.
This is so. ... some of the musicians are crying over here, he added
The concert was backed by local authorities and by experts of Barcelona's The Fight AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation. They had organized a case study around a smaller concert of 500 people in December. The results of that study had proved that the COVID-19 test before the concert and wearing a face mask during the concert succeeded in preventing infections. Dr. Boris Revollo, the virologist involved in designing health protocols said that this is a small step towards holding concerts and events. The team of virologists will do an analysis of infection rates among the 5,000 people who attended the concert compared with that of the general population to see if there are any discrepancies that could point to "contagion at the concert".
This is another small step toward being able to hold concerts and cultural events, he said