Austin Heightens COVID Guidelines for Special Event Permits: Attendee screening, distancing provisions take effect Monday – News

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Image over city of Austin

Beginning Monday August 30th, event organizers will need to do more to show how they intend to contain the spread of COVID-19 as part of the special event application process through the Austin Center for Events.

On Friday, ACE, which coordinates with more than a dozen city authorities (including Austin Public Health) to issue permits for public and private gatherings, announced improved criteria for events and venues. As part of its “Bringing Events Back” guidelines, ACE has been asking applicants to submit a COVID-19 health and safety plan online since April, which APH approves for indoor events with more than 1,000 participants and outdoor events with more than 2,500 participants got to . If the plans aren’t enough, APH staff will work with organizers to step up containment efforts. Organizers of smaller events are encouraged, but not required, to incorporate the recommendations into their planning.

Now as central Texas hospitals strive to treat a record number of COVID-19 patients, despite two-thirds of Travis County’s residents ages 12 and older, ACE and APH have added new regulations to be considered in these plans should. This includes pre-screening of participants (as well as staff) by providing evidence of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the event; Maintain a minimum distance of 1.8 m between all participants; and the implementation of “mask zones” in outdoor event areas where distancing is not possible.

Not all major Austin events and venues require ACE approvals and are therefore not required to take such action; These include Austin FC games and other events at Q2 Stadium, Circuit of the Americas and the newly opened Moody Amphitheater in Waterloo Park. Local bars and clubs that have an annual public address permit, such as the Red River Clubs that host the Hot Summer Nights series this weekend, do not need to obtain permits through ACE either.

Typical events that include road closures, such as two scheduled for this weekend whose anticipated permits have not been issued due to the continued surge in COVID-19. Celebrating Austin’s popular colony of Mexican cantilever bats under the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, Bat Fest is scheduled to return downtown in person on Saturday with live music, arts and crafts, and food and drink vendors. The HEB Austin Sunshine Run in aid of the Austin Sunshine Camps was planned as a hybrid event for Sunday. On Wednesday, August 25, the organizers of both events were informed that local health conditions would not allow the events to take place. The Sunshine Run was supposed to take place on Sunday as a purely virtual event, while the Bat Fest was canceled.

Bat Fest producer Roadway Productions said in a statement: “We are shocked and devastated as this is a huge financial blow and is damaging our reputation as an event producer. We know it’s tough for our ticket holders, our vendors, our bands, etc. ”Street owner French Smith told the Chronicle that his COVID-19 plan for Bat Fest in July was approved by APH and that ACE- Manager Bill Manno Smith emailed an email on Monday 23 August that ACE would “proceed with the review” [Bat Fest] with the expectation that it will happen – provided all departmental reviews are approved as normal. ”In the same email, Manno noted that“ some additional factors to mitigate the risk of COVID will be coming out soon ” [but] I do not assume that they will take effect before the Bat Fest. “

In response to the Chronicle’s request for comment from Manno, a city spokesman said APH and ACE had “very cautiously” denied Bat Fest’s permit application, citing the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant and the current pollution of the local medical resources. “These pressures can impact the city’s provision of emergency services and the city’s provision of services necessary to support government functions.” ACE leaves plenty of leeway to reject permit applications that could overwhelm the city’s public safety resources.

Now that a lawsuit is unfolding in Texas courts over the authority of local authorities to impose mask and vaccine mandates, Smith asks if Austin should try to restrict all major events and gatherings like the spring of 2020. “I love all the events,” but it’s not right to close one and let the other go on, “said Smith. “What’s the use?”

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