Missouri Is the First State to Allow People to Attend Live Events Again
Mike Parson, Governor of Missouri, has given the go-ahead for live events such as concerts to resume, making Missouri the first state to permit social gatherings since lockdown began.
Parson's Show Me Strong recovery plan, slated to come into effect on Monday May 4, will enable stores and restaurants to reopen and start serving customers again, provided they continue to follow appropriate social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The plan also includes scope for live performances to begin again, with large-scale gatherings in theaters and stadiums no longer forbidden.
While venues will not face the same official cap on the number of people allowed to attend a concert as retail spaces, event organizers will be required to uphold the 6-feet minimum distance between attendees. "There are currently no limitations on social gatherings as long as necessary precautions are taken and six feet of distance can be maintained between individuals and/or families," the plan reads. "Seating shall be spaced out according to social distancing requirements."
At present, these loosened restrictions only apply to venues in smaller cities and towns; lockdown orders are still in effect in St. Louis, Springfield, and Kansas City. "We will continue to be guided by data, not dates," tweeted St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson on Friday.
However, venues based in smaller locations are still exercising caution. "We are currently assessing the details of the announcement and the latest information from health experts," said a spokesperson for FPC Live, which runs The Blue Note in Columbia. "We hope to chart a path to reopening as soon as possible but have not determined the timing of that just yet."
And even if event spaces do begin to reopen, enforcing social distancing might not be at the top of their list of problems: according to a recent Reuters poll, only about 40 percent of Americans say they would feel comfortable going to a concert, sporting event or theme park before a vaccine has been developed.
Some scientific commentators, like Zeke Emanuel, Director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, believes that rescheduling events for later in the year might be overly optimistic, and that a more realistic view would be to start making plans for 2021.
"Restarting the economy has to be done in stages, and it does have to start with more physical distancing at a work site that allows people who are at lower risk to come back," he says. "Certain kinds of construction, or manufacturing or offices, in which you can maintain six-foot distances are more reasonable to start sooner. Larger gatherings—conferences, concerts, sporting events—when people say they’re going to reschedule this conference or graduation event for October 2020, I have no idea how they think that’s a plausible possibility. I think those things will be the last to return. Realistically we’re talking fall 2021 at the earliest."
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