(Newswire.net— August 29, 2020) — Scientists in Germany have held three pop concerts in a single day to investigate the risks posed by mass indoor events following the global pandemic, the BBC reports.
About 1,500 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 50 took part – just a third of the expected number the scientists were looking for.
But the head of the study, which was carried out in Leipzig by Halle University, said he was “very satisfied” with how the event unfolded.
Singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko agreed to perform at all three successive gigs.
The study came as Germany recorded its highest number of Covid-19 infections since the end of April.
The leader of the research, conducted by the University of Halle, said that he was “very satisfied” with how the events unfolded.
According to Johns Hopkins University, almost 235,000 cases have been recorded in Germany since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 208,000 have recovered, and about 9,200 people have died.
The study, called Restart-19, is designed to “investigate the conditions under which such events can be organized regardless of a pandemic,” the researchers say.
Each of the three concerts was organized under a different set of circumstances: The first gathering was organized as before the pandemic, without security measures. On the second there were high hygienic measures and a small social distance, while on the third there were more than half of the participants and they all stood a meter and distance was maintained from each other during the event.
All participants were tested on Covid-19 before the event and received masks and devices for measuring distance. Researchers also used fluorescent disinfectants to determine which surfaces the audience touched the most.
“The data collection is going very well, so we have good quality data, the mood is great and we are extremely satisfied with the discipline in wearing masks and using disinfectant,” lead researcher Dr. Stefan Moritz said.
The first results of the study are expected in the fall.