Oscars Rescind Quarantine Requirement For Attendees Arriving From Outside L.A.

Dominic Patten and Tom Tapp
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Academy Awards attendees from outside Los Angeles will not have to quarantine at all before heading to the Dolby Theater on March 27.

Based on advice and recommendations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s medical advisors, the decision to lift the five-day quarantine requirement was reached yesterday afternoon, I hear. As mask mandates and other Covid-19 safety protocols lift in L.A. County and the home of Hollywood shifts somewhat back to pre-pandemic patterns, this is a turnaround from the policy that AMPAS had in place for the Union Station-set 93rd Oscars in 2021.

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What domestic and international visitors to the 94rd Academy Awards will need to get is a PCR test after settling down in town. Options of concierge service or labs around Tinseltown will be provided to such travelers, but it is their individual responsibility to get the test. If that PCR test is negative, then it’s off to the Oscars.

Overall, to get in their seats for the Oscars on March 27, all nominees and guests will be required to provide proof of negative results from two PCR tests. The first one must be taken on March 24, and the second one taken two days later. If you are one of those attendees traveling into town, that March 26 PCR test has to be conducted after you arrive in L.A.

In the context of the April 25, 2021 Oscars, when few were double vaccinated and no one had a booster shot, the Academy had stricter protocols than many other events. That doubling down was in no small part due to differing standards in differing jurisdictions here in the Southland.

What a difference a year makes.

Deadline confirmed last month that presenters and performers at the Academy Awards will not be required to show proof of vaccination, but attending nominees and guests will. Unvaccinated attendees will have to provide evidence of a medical or religious exemption to be allowed in the Dolby.

Much of the local regulations underlying those requirements remain in flux, however.

Since February, as Covid cases continue to decline, L.A. County has lifted nearly all its Covid restrictions for businesses. But operators of so-called “Indoor Mega Events” — concerts and such — still “must verify the full vaccination status or pre-entry negative Covid-19 viral test result of all attendees.” Those restrictions may also be lifted soon.

But the City of Los Angeles, in which the Dolby Theater sits, still has a requirement that live performance venues require guests “to show proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 applies to the following covered indoor locations.” There is no provision for unvaccinated attendees, beyond those with religious exemptions.

The city council voted this week to prepare an ordinance dropping many of its remaining requirements. It must be drafted and passed by the council before it takes effect, the timing of which is uncertain. The Academy may get around all this by classifying most of the attendees as performers in a TV production. They would be allowed to be massless, but still subject to vaccination requirements per the industry’s return to work requirement.

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