Those Who Test Negative Are Given A ‘Coronavirus-Free’ Card
With areas slowly opening up with step-by-step loosing of the coronavirus #stayhome orders, the status of concerts, festival and sporting events is still up in the air.
And attending them is even more in question.
Well here is one way to make them all safe to attend: test everyone who buys a ticket and do not allow anyone in who has tested positive.
If this sounds like an impossible task – especially considering here in the U.S., where only 200,000-250,000 people per day are being tested and in many cities only those with symptoms are being allowed to go to designated testing sites – it’s not.
For one, a company right here in San Diego, Quidel Corp, has developed a test that provides immediate results. Testing is from swaps swiped inside the nasal cavity. It is called an antigen test and it has been authorized by the FDA.
People could do this in advance or on-site at the venue. Once are cleared, they are issued a “coronavirus free” card which is good for three or six months, or maybe even a year, whatever length of time health officials determine is a safe time period.
If this is as simple as it sounds, then potential patrons could get tested on-site when they go out to concerts, festivals, sporting events and even bars and restaurants.
The reason this is a solution is because of what happened the first weekend of May in South Korea. Dozens of people came down with coronavirus after going out and officials traced it to a 29-year-old man who went to three nightclubs and later tested positive.
As a result, 2,100 establishments in Seoul were shut down by the city’s mayor and officials are trying to track down nearly 2,000 people who were in the same places as the man, as well as nearby bars.
So one single infected person led to others getting the virus and the shutting down of every bar in the city. This one instance makes it clear that before bars, restaurants and even concerts and sporting events can safely re-open, every single person going to them needs to be tested and have a negative result.
Without knowing everyone at an event is virus free, I won’t feel safe going to one.
However, if I have the confidence that everyone is fine – and they know the same – then we could all enjoy our activities as much as we have in the past.
Right idea – everyone should be tested. Then you can trace and quarantine only those who need it. But if you allow people who are negative to the antigen test in to a concert, it means they haven’t been exposed, or haven’t had it long enough to create antigens. But they could be in a sweet spot of infected and infectious with no symptoms. To have a “passport” you’d need test positive for the antigen but negative for the active .virus. We aren’t there yet.
Thanks!