Ticketmaster Wants to Verify If Fans Received COVID-19 Vaccine Before Attending Events
Ticketmaster has started to develop plans to bring back concerts and other ticketed events. Once live events start up again, Ticketmaster hopes to use smart phones to verify fans’ vaccination status or whether they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus within a 24 to 72 hour window.
Per Billboard, the ticketing giant will try and accomplish this via their digital ticket app and by partnering with third-party health information companies and various testing and vaccine providers.
Billboard details the process of Ticketmaster’s plans as follows:
“Here’s how it would work, if approved: After purchasing a ticket for a concert, fans would need to verify that they have already been vaccinated (which would provide approximately one year of COVID-19 protection) or test negative for coronavirus approximately 24 to 72 hours prior to the concert. The length of coverage a test would provide would be governed by regional health authorities — if attendees of a Friday night concert had to be tested 48 hours in advance, most could start the testing process the day before the event. If it was a 24-hour window, most people would likely be tested the same day of the event at a lab or a health clinic.
Once the test was complete, the fan would instruct the lab to deliver the results to their health pass company, like CLEAR [Health Pass] or IBM [Digital Health Pass.] If the tests were negative, or the fan was vaccinated, the health pass company would verify the attendee’s COVID-19 status to Ticketmaster, which would then issue the fan the credentials needed to access the event. If a fan tested positive or didn’t take a test to verify their status, they would not be granted access to the event. There are still many details to work out, but the goal of the program is for fans to take care of vaccines and testing prior to the concert and not show up hoping to be tested onsite.”
These plans are still in the developmental stages and nothing has been made official by Ticketmaster yet. Billboard also notes, “Ticketmaster would not store or have access to fans’ medical records and would only receive verification of whether a fan is cleared to attend an event on a given date.”
This news follows Pfizer's announcement on Monday (November 9) that its analysis of their COVID-19 vaccine trials found their two-dose vaccine was 90 percent effective in fighting the potentially deadly virus.
The return of concerts and other live events has been a hot topic among those in and out of the events industry. In September, Pollstar & VenuesNow shared their 2020 State of the Industry Survey, which surveyed over 1,350 professionals, and 54.7% of those surveyed said they believe their industry would be back at full capacity in 2021.
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