‘Host responsibility’ at concert
With some large-scale gatherings cancelled or affected because of coronavirus, the annual Framingham Harvest Concert has implemented extra measures to ensure the event is still a hit.
American festival South by Southwest festival (SXSW) was cancelled, and plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games have been scaled back because of growing fears about a possible coronavirus pandemic.
In spite of some vintage workers in ‘‘self-isolation’’, Framingham Wines marketing manager Bridget Glackin said ticket sales were performing better than last year. She expected 600 people to attend, and tickets would sell out within 24 hours.
They had been monitoring the situation and following Ministry of Health guidelines for several weeks, and had put extra measures in place in light of coronavirus concerns.
‘‘We’ve put measures in place, we’re actually going to have sanitising stations,’’ Glackin said.
‘‘We’re really lucky ... it’s one entrance in and out so in terms of sanitising, we’re lucky in lots of different ways.’’
She was aware some people might not attend for this reason, but Framingham itself had no workers in isolation.
‘‘They’ve all arrived today and noone’s travelled through the hotspots. We’re a really small team but a lot of wineries have to rely on a lot more people. It’s a pretty stressful time for some of those big wineries.’’
With an undisclosed number of vintage workers under ‘‘selfisolation’’ for coronavirus, New Zealand Wine Growers chief executive Philip Gregan said some disruption to the 2020 vintage could be expected.
Gregan said they were following advice from the Ministry of Health in isolating vintage workers who had come from coronavirus hotspots. However, this was not strictly enforced.
‘‘At this stage the Ministry of Health has only asked that people travelling through affected areas take it upon themselves to self-isolate, and this advice is being followed by our organisation and our members.’’
The ministry defined self isolation as ‘‘staying away from situations where you could infect other people’’.
It was not only avoiding work but ‘‘any situation where you may come in close contact with others (face to face contact closer than 1 metre for more than 15 minutes), such as social gatherings, work, school, child care/ pre-school centres, university, polytechnic and other education providers, faith-based gatherings, aged care and health care facilities, prisons, sports gatherings, restaurants and all public gatherings’’.
Nelson Marlborough Health chief medical officer Dr Nick Baker said self-isolation, or quarantine, was a traditional method of limiting the spread of disease.
‘‘Quarantine was something invented in Venice in the 16th century where ships had to stay off shore for 40 days before they entered the port to keep infections out.’’
Practices such as washing hands and not sharing food were even more important in the climate of Covid-19 concern, Baker said.
‘‘Specifically if someone does have a respiratory infection, they really shouldn’t be going into public places and into work,’’ he said. ‘‘The chances are at the moment, it almost certainly won’t be Covid, but let’s not spread anything in our community.’’
‘‘We’ve put measures in place, we’re actually going to have sanitising stations.’’ Framingham Wines’ Bridget Glackin