Fifth of experimental cabaret attendees did not get Covid test after

A fifth of the people who attended a cabaret performance by Guido Weijers last month, the second experimental event by Fieldlab, did not get tested for the coronavirus afterwards. Fieldlab is still pleased that 79 percent of attendees did get tested, and that none of them tested positive for Covid-19, RTL Nieuws reports.

A total of 500 people attended the experimental event on Saturday, February 20. Visitors were informed that they had to be tested for the coronavirus before and after the event, to see whether such events can be held safely without coronavirus outbreaks. Of the 500 attendees, 79 percent showed up at a Fieldlab test location in the 10 days after the event. 21 percent did not.

According to Fieldlab, it's likely that those who did not come to be tested could not make it to the Fieldlab test locations in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Eindhoven. "Maybe they didn't want to take a day off for it," spokesperson Tim Boersma said. "We are happy with the turnout. 79 percent is high, and we also wanted to know not only how many people would be infected with corona after such an event. We also wanted to know how many people would be willing to get tested."

He added that Fieldlab can't force people to get tested afterwards. Beforehand you can require a negative test result before entry. But afterwards it is impossible to control people's actions. "We asked clearly, we indicated where the four test locations are, but the visitors have to do it in their own time and on their own and are also allowed to refuse afterwards. We cannot do anything about that."

None of the 79 percent of attendees who went to get tested afterwards, tested positive for the coronavirus. Boersma can't say for certain whether any of the other 21 percent contracted the virus. But he added: "If people still got symptoms in those 10 days after the event and tested positive at a GGD location, then we would have been told by the GGD." So far, Fieldlab hasn't heard anything. "So there is a good chance that the people who did not get tested, did not get any symptoms."

Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health is not so positive about the test turnout. According to him, it is not good for the "effectiveness of this Fieldlab event" that a large group did not get tested afterwards. As a result, the conclusions of the experiment can not be drawn with certainty, he said. 

The first Fieldlab event experiment was a conference in Utrecht. None of the attendees tested positive for Covid-19 afterwards, though one staff member did. 

The next Fieldlab experiments are two dance events in the ZiggoDome in Amsterdam this coming weekend, and a music festival at the festival site in Biddinghuizen next weekend. The tickets for these events sold out within an hour.