Photo: FRANKIE FOUGANTHIN/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Various organisations are considering taking steps to reduce the chances of their events turning into COVID-19 super spreaders.
In a media statement, Vinpro said that only vaccinated people would be welcome at the Nedbank Vinpro Information Day, which will be held on 20 January 2022. Individuals who had not been vaccinated or were unable to proof their vaccination status would be able to attend the day virtually.
Wanda Augustyn, media and communications manager at Vinpro, said Vinpro’s board of directors made this decision in an attempt to protect people, given the current rise in COVID-19 cases.
Vaccination was also a prerequisite to attend Agri-Expo’s series of SA Cheese Festival Pop-up Picnics, which would be hosted over weekends from the start of April to the start of May.
Johan Ehlers, CEO of Agri-Expo, said the same protocol would be followed for other Agri-Expo events.
“The wine, exhibitions and events industries suffered a severe blow because of trade restrictions, with the majority of event companies still unable to operate at full capacity. Under current Level 1 restrictions, events agencies are not allowed to host more than 2 000 people a day. We used to host up to 10 000 people daily at the SA Cheese Festival in the past.”
Elmarie Prinsloo, CEO of the Bloem Show, recently wrote a letter to Bloem Show stakeholders in which she said that the major role players in the show industry (namely Bloem Show, Royal Show, Nampo, Nampo Cape, Nampo Alfa and Agri-Expo) had decided to join forces with other entities, such as Business for South Africa and Business Units South Africa, the SA Sports Confederation, Olympic Committee and sporting federations, to drive the re-opening of shows and other events.
She said government had promulgated regulations that allowed spectators to return to live sport on condition that they showed proof of vaccination, while a task team was launched in November to investigate vaccine mandates across multiple economic sectors. It was uncertain when these mandates would be announced.
Prinsloo told Farmer’s Weekly that nobody wanted to close their doors to anyone, but that they needed to sensitise people to the idea that only vaccinated people, or those who could show a negative COVID-19 test, would be allowed at events, in case government decided to implement vaccine mandates, as was currently being done in other countries.
“Agricultural shows have not been open for the past two years. We cannot afford to stay closed and 2 000 people are financially unviable for us. Most of the show companies will decide towards the end of January/start of February whether they will host a show and how,” she said.
#This article was updated on 17 December 2021 to include comment from other show and event organisers.
