A concert in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to advance research. Some 4,000 volunteers are expected at a test event, during which the German artist Tim Bendzko will perform, on August 22 in Leipzig (eastern Germany). Objective: to study the spread of the new coronavirus during a massive gathering.
This project, named Restart-19, is supervised by researchers from the Martin-Luther-de-Halle-Wittemberg University, with the agreement of the Saxony Ministry of Science. To participate, you must be between 18 and 50 years old, and have no health problem.
The experiment will be carried out under three different scenarios. In the first, 4,000 people will attend the concert as if the virus was not circulating. In the second scenario, the 4000 participants will respect the barrier gestures. In the third case, only 2000 people will be gathered, in order to maintain a distance of 1.5 meters between each spectator for the duration of the concert.
"Mapping the behavior of the spectator"
For the researchers, it is a question of "mapping the behavior of the spectator in the most realistic way possible", explains to the Guardian Stefan Moritz, the coordinator of the event and person in charge of the infectious diseases department at the university hospital.
"We are trying to find out if there could be an intermediate path between the old and the new standard [major events cannot bring together more than 1000 people in Germany during the health crisis, Editor's note] which would allow the organizers to integrate sufficiently people in a concert hall so as not to suffer a [financial] loss, ”adds Stefan Moritz.
During the experiment, volunteers should wear contact tracing equipment. All will be tested before and after the concert, and will have hydroalcoholic gel at their disposal to regularly disinfect their hands. The first results of the study should be available four to six weeks after August 22.