More than half a year since COVID-19 first became a global problem, the number of infected by the disease is still on the rise in several parts of the world.?
It is thus an accepted fact that us humans now need to learn to live with the virus amidst us. But does it mean we can continue life as before the virus? Can we, for instance, go to music concerts like before?
A team of scientists seeks an answer to that very question. In fact, the team is holding a pop concert in Germany with an extended 4,000 attendees for the same.
With the concert, scientists aim to find out the exact method in which COVID-19 could spread in large indoor gatherings. The effort is meant to find ways to eliminate the spread of COVID-19 in such gatherings and thus make such mass gatherings possible even in a COVID-19 stricken world.
As part of the ¡°coronavirus experiment¡±, a concert will be held in the indoor stadium in the city of Leipzig on August 22. Singer and songwriter Tim Bendzko will be the star of the concert, as scientists still recruit volunteers aged 18 to 50 for the same, mentions a report by The Guardian.
Called the ¡°Restart-19 project¡±, the concert is estimated to cost around €990,000 (Rs 8.76 crore).
At the venue, the volunteers will be equipped with tracking gadgets and bottles of fluorescent disinfectant. The idea is to monitor the movement of the entire crowd during the event. This will include their individual movements from one point to another as well as all the surfaces they touch.
This is wherein the tracking gadgets and the special disinfectant will help. ¡°Contact tracer,¡± the size of a matchstick, will be worn by the participants around their necks. This will help transmit their location at every five-second interval in relation with the proximity to others in the audience.
The special disinfectant, on the other hand, will be a fluorescent hand-sanitiser. The sanitiser will leave marks till after the concert, which will then be identified by the scientists with UV lights to know of all the surfaces that people touch.
The organisers claim to have made sure that the research event does not turn out to cause a COVID-19 outbreak in itself. For this, the signed-up volunteers will receive a DIY test kit and have a swab at a doctor¡¯s clinic 48 hours before the concert starts. Those who do not get tested for Covid-19 will not be permitted.
In addition, the team will offer a face mask with an exhalation valve to each concertgoer with the disinfectant. Though the organisers warn that 100% protection cannot be guaranteed, they also assure that these measures would cut down the risk of catching the disease at the venue to ¡°extremely slim.¡±
Once the data from the experiment is recorded, scientists aim to come out with their findings by early October. In many ways, findings from this research can prove to be the near future of several artists and performers and will shed more light on the future of these streams in general.