Tag: Maskless

Categories
Entertainment

Radio Metropolis Music Corridor to Reopen to Maskless, Vaccinated Full Homes

Radio City Music Hall to Reopen to Maskless, Vaccinated Full Houses

In the latest sign of how fast vaccinations are changing, what New Yorkers can and can’t do, Radio City Music Hall plans to reopen next month to welcome full-capacity non-masked audiences – as long as every ticket holder has been vaccinated .

The music hall will welcome streams of vaccinated people past their neon tents and back into their gilded Art Deco auditorium for the final evening of the Tribeca festival on June 19, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday.

“This beautiful hall is being filled again,” said Cuomo at a press conference in the music hall. “Having Radio City back 100 percent without masks, with people enjoying New York and New York art, won’t just be symbolic and metaphorical. But I think it will go a long way in restoring that state. “

James L. Dolan, the chairman and general manager of Madison Square Garden Company, who owns the music hall, said the hall would remain open beyond June 19, but only to vaccinated people. When asked how the rules would be implemented – and whether ushers would follow the honor system or look for proof of vaccination – he admitted that some details were still being worked out.

“That’s a really good question, I have no idea,” said Mr Dolan. “We will work with the state and find a way to do this.”

The announcement came as the plans to reopen have changed and accelerated day by day.

Mr Dolan said his group’s venues would start booking concerts and other events for what he thought was a “blockbuster summer”.

Updated

May 17, 2021, 3:33 p.m. ET

“We didn’t think this was going to happen,” said Mr Dolan. “We really had planned a blockbuster fall.”

He said the group’s other venues, which also host sporting events, would allow a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated patrons, but would give priority to vaccinated patrons. Still, he acknowledged that planners would need to make a more detailed assessment of the venues before specific rules could be put in place.

In his remarks, Mr. Cuomo emphasized that people who are not vaccinated would not be allowed into the music hall and stated in his PowerPoint: “Vaccinations have advantages!”

Although the number of new coronavirus cases in New York state is declining, the average averaged 1,864 coronavirus cases per day, according to the New York Times on Monday. Around 43 percent of the state’s residents are vaccinated, and more than half have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The organizers of the Tribeca Festival have already announced that they will open the festivities with the premiere of “In the Heights”, the film from the Lin Manuel Miranda musical. Mr Cuomo said Monday that Pier 76 Park on the Hudson will host one of the opening screenings on June 9th.

Monday’s announcement of the revered hall’s return is the last in a series of reopenings officials have planned for the coming weeks and months. As more New Yorkers became vaccinated against the virus and federal health officials relaxed their guidelines on how to wear masks, indoor arts venues have slowly begun welcoming visitors back while adhering to capacity limits and other safety requirements.

Perhaps most notably, Broadway shows have started selling tickets for full capacity shows, some of which will begin as early as mid-September.

Categories
Entertainment

Maskless and Sweaty: Clubbing Returns to Britain for a Weekend

Maskless and Sweaty: Clubbing Returns to Britain for a Weekend

On April 29, French President Emmanuel Macron said he hoped to lift most of the country’s restrictions on June 30, but nightclubs would remain closed.

Many DJs wanted the clubs to reopen as soon as possible, and not just because of their work. Clubbing wasn’t just about music, said Marea Stamper, a DJ better known as Blessed Madonna, after playing a set at the Liverpool event. “We come to raves to dance, drink, fall in love, meet our friends,” she said. Nightclubs create communities, she added, “and cutting that off is horrible.”

“It’s not just a party,” she added. “It’s never just a party.”

This sense of community was evident in Liverpool at 7:30 p.m. when Yousef Zahar, DJ and co-owner of Circus, the organizer of the event, took the stage. For his first track, he put on an emotional house tune called “When We Were Free” that he played in the middle of Britain’s third lockdown last year.

It seemed like an odd choice for an event celebrating the club’s return, but as it came to an end he began to rehearse a rehearsal of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to play “I Have a Dream”. “Finally free, finally free; Thank God Almighty, we are finally free, ”said Dr. King and his voice boomed through the warehouse.

Then, as green lights flashed over the crowd, Zahar dropped Ultra Naté’s “Free,” a 90s dance hit. As soon as it reached its euphoric chorus – “You are free to do what you want” – confetti cannons went off and sprayed paper all over the crowd, and the ravers began to sing along. For the rest of the night they would follow the advice of the song.

Categories
Health

Open center seats might cut back Covid publicity of maskless passengers

Open middle seats could reduce Covid exposure of maskless passengers

View of the cabin of a Delta flight between Minneapolis and Baltimore on April 25, 2020.

Sebastien Duval | AFP | Getty Images

Passenger exposure to the virus that causes Covid-19 could be reduced by more than half if the center seats on airplanes were left open, according to a new study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kansas State University used laboratory models to find that passenger exposure to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, could be reduced by between 23% in large and narrow-body aircraft and 57% when airlines leave middle seats open – Even if they don’t wear masks.

The study comes after airlines have spent much of the last year promoting increased on-board cleaning procedures and filtration to reassure travelers worried about flying during the pandemic. The demand for travel has recovered somewhat since then, as more people are vaccinated against Covid-19.

U.S. airlines, including JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines, limited the capacity on board their aircraft at the start of the pandemic, but have since abolished the policy, citing hospital-grade filtration and other safety measures to limit the risk of exposure on board. Delta Air Lines plans to end the lockdown of the center seats next month, the last U.S. carrier to make the change. However, capacity caps were halted over the Easter weekend as staff shortages resulted in dozens of flight cancellations.

The researchers’ study did not look at wearing masks on flights, which became an airline and federal government policy during the pandemic.

However, they cited a New Zealand case study which stated that “some of the virus aerosol is given off by an infectious masked passenger, so distancing might still be useful.”

They used a surrogate virus to stand up for SARS-CoV-2 in the air.

Categories
Business

Frontier Cancels Flight, Citing Maskless Passengers

Frontier Cancels Flight, Citing Maskless Passengers

A Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to New York’s La Guardia Airport was canceled Sunday evening after a large group of passengers, including several adults, refused to wear masks.

On Monday morning, the airline was charged with anti-Semitism for the treatment of passengers who are Hasidic Jews, as well as demands for investigations by the Anti-Defamation League of New York and other groups. Frontier held firm to its position that passengers had refused to comply with federal regulations requiring them to wear masks.

Some cell phone videos that have surfaced do not show the confrontation between the passengers and Frontier crew members, only the aftermath. The footage from the plane appeared to show members of the group wearing masks. Some passengers said the episode escalated because only one member of the group, a 15-month-old child, was not carrying a child.

Videos of passengers exiting the plane amid the chaos and taped by others on the flight have been posted on Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council. In one video, a passenger says, “This is an anti-Semitic act.”

Another video showed a couple holding a maskless baby in a car seat when children heard crying, and one woman explained that the young children in her group, sitting in the back of the plane, had removed their masks to eat.

In a third video, a passenger says “This is Nazi Germany” as the couple and the small child walk up the aisle of the plane to the exit.

A Frontier Airlines spokeswoman said in a statement that “a large group of passengers have repeatedly refused to comply with the US government’s mask mandate.”

“Several people, including several adults, have been repeatedly asked to wear their masks and refused to do so,” said Jennifer de la Cruz, the spokeswoman. “Due to the continued refusal to comply with the federal mask mandate, refusal to disembark, and aggression against the flight crew, local law enforcement agencies were engaged. The flight was eventually canceled. “

But members of the group said they wore masks.

“We are law abiding citizens, law abiding people,” said Martin Joseph, who traveled with 21 members of his family, including his children and grandchildren. “We have young children. We understand that the mask must be worn and everyone must wear a mask and that is the law. We keep a million percent. “

Mr. Joseph said his daughter and her husband were sitting in the back row with their 15-month-old child and two other couples and their children. All are Hasidic Jews, said Mr. Joseph, although he added that one of the couples was not related to him.

Updated

March 1, 2021, 9:49 p.m. ET

He said a flight attendant asked his daughter to put a mask on her baby. She argued that her son did not have to wear a mask because of his age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requires masks only for passengers who are at least 2 years old.

“Then they announced that all three couples would have to get off the plane in the back of the plane before they could take off,” said Mr. Joseph. “The babies were crying, the people were crying, the mothers were crying.”

Another passenger on the plane, Temima Stark, said she was sitting with her husband and child when the commotion started. She said she saw airline employees approaching passengers in the background. Everyone seemed to be wearing masks, she said, except for the baby who was eating.

As the passengers got off the plane, Ms. Stark, who was not traveling with the group, said she saw airline employees pulling each other up. Several other passengers interviewed on video reiterated the claim. Frontier Airlines did not comment directly on the allegation.

“The whole plane just went crazy,” she said.

A few minutes after disembarking, Ms. Stark said, the remaining passengers were ordered off the plane.

On Monday, the New York Anti-Defamation League called for a “full and transparent investigation” on Twitter, citing “obvious # anti-Semitic comments from the occupation or others”.

When asked about the allegations of anti-Semitism, Ms. de la Cruz, a spokeswoman for Frontier, said the airline is looking into “any situation that requires a passenger to be removed from a flight.”

“Like many other airlines,” she said, “Frontier has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to masks on our flights.” This becomes clear at the time of purchase, before and during the check-in process at the gate and on board the aircraft. “

Wearing masks and other public health measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus became a hotspot in the New York area during the summer as Covid-19 spread rapidly in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. The city’s health authorities said at the time they were particularly concerned about a significant increase in transmission between some of the city’s Hasidic communities. Similar tensions simmered in Israel.

When asked about the confrontation aboard the Frontier flight, Yossi Gestetner, founder of the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, said: “Regardless of what started this whole mess, people certainly blame airline staff for doing so unacceptable and needs to be addressed. “

“The airline wants the public to believe that 12 people, some of whom are unrelated other than belonging to the same ethnic group, decided to go to the airport and on the plane wearing masks and leave with masks on, as seen on videos however, to act together remove all masks while seated, ”he said. “It’s contrary to logic.”