Spain is scheduled to host a clinical study of 1,000 participants at the Apollo Hall in Barcelona this October to establish the effectiveness of conducting rapid coronavirus tests at live events.  

Organized by Primavera Sound, the Fight Against Aids and Infectious Diseases Foundation, and the Germans Trias hospital in Barcelona, the pilot will require each attendee to undergo a rapid antigen test, which detects the coronavirus within minutes.  Only those with negative test results will be allowed to enter the event on the same day the test was conducted.  Participants of the study will be required to wear masks at all times except when consuming beverages.

Prior to the opening of the event’s doors, another PCR test will take place on half of the participants to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid tests.  The objective of the study is to test different formulas that can guarantee a safe environment for live events to take place within closed spaces while a COVID-19 vaccine is still yet to be established.

This pilot test is a smaller-scale version of Germany’s Restart-19 pilot which saw 1,500 participants spend ten days inside Arena Leipzig on August 22 to show how the coronavirus travels indoors at events.  Results of Germany’s Restart-19 will be revealed on Oct. 22.

This story was originally reported by IQMag.

Written by Natalie Wicks Features