Primavera Sound Music Festival 2017

According to the Associated Press, Barcelona’s Fight AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation recently teamed up with the Primavera Sound Music Festival to see how same-day COVID-19 antigen testing might work in a crowded music venue.

A group of 1,000 volunteers were tested with a 15-minute rapid test, and half were sent home as a control group. The other 500, however, were allowed to enter Barcelona’s Apolo Theater for a five-hour concert, which required masks but no social distancing. Dancing in close quarters and hugs were allowed, as was the removing of masks for one drink at an upstairs bar.

“This is not a party, this is a scientific study,” virologist Dr. Boris Revollo told The AP, adding that the kind of same-day antigen screenings used for this event, would still have to be combined with face masks and anti-virus restrictions.

Additionally, “All 1,000 of the volunteers will also undergo two PCR tests, which have a higher capacity to detect the virus than the same-day antigen test, first on Saturday before the concert, and then again eight days later. Revollo said these PCR tests will allow him and his fellow investigators to determine if any infected people got past the same-day antigen screen and, if so, did they infect others inside the show.”

Spain’s COVID-19 death toll currently sits around 47,600, as compared to America’s estimated 299,000.

Read the full story here.