In mid-January, test situations of football matches, cinemas and concerts will be set up in order to see how larger audiences can once again become a possibility in the Netherlands.
The industries are looking to experiment with how events can be organised safely with larger groups of people. Fieldlab Events, who arrange business, public, cultural and sports events, initiated the program in collaboration with TNO and TU Delft, reports NOS. Their goal is to collect data on the risk of contamination in various group set-ups.
Performing the trials
The researchers will be carefully monitoring the behaviour of test subjects, the air qualities in the buildings, the use of masks, disinfectants, and the impact on vulnerable groups.
Program team manager of Fieldlab, Pieter Lubberts, said, “We can test in advance and take such security measures, so that we know that visitors to theater performances, cinemas, business seminars or concerts are not infected and meet all safety requirements.”
They plan to perform the first trials with people who have tested negative for corona, and the test subjects will be asked to stay out of contact from vulnerable groups for two weeks after the trials.
Conditions
However, none of the trials will go forward if certain requirements are not met. State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Mona Keijzer, made it clear that the trials must take place in a region with a risk level of one, and so far none of the Dutch regions have achieved this.
She has also specified that test subjects must be seated, which is why festivals and concerts where people can walk around will not be undergoing any trial tests yet.
However, Keijzer is optimistic about what these trials mean for the country. “This is good for the Dutch population,” she said. “They long to go to the movies or an event together again.”
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