After a rehearsal of the Leiden hobby choir The one in singing nine choir members have received corona. Well that is not very surprising at first, since it is known that (loud) singing and raising of the voice additional spread of the virus can cause. Still, the outbreak is quite striking as the choir adheres to safety regulations in an almost exaggerated way.
Although none of them became seriously ill, the choir members were very shocked:
‘We are very shocked. Other choirs should know this. We have adhered to all the rules of the Choir Network Netherlands. What happened to us can happen to anyone. ‘
According to board member Marijke Meijer, who herself is at home with minor complaints. According to the amateur singer, strict adherence to the regulations may even have backfired:
“Maybe we ventilated too much, which allowed the virus to spread with the airflow.”
Even more striking is that the choir consists largely of medically trained people. The 33 choir members in total found the old rehearsal space too small when they wanted to practice again after the summer. Later a larger and, it is believed, safer shelter was found in a suburb. ‘A large hall. With a high gabled roof and natural ventilation ‘, is how Meijer describes.
During the first rehearsal in the new accommodation, the members took place on diagonally spaced chairs with plenty of space in between. There were also several windows and doors open. During the break there was even a complete billiards table between the people. Unfortunately, none of this could prevent choir members from reporting throat complaints a few days after the rehearsal.
The exact reason why in choirs the infections so numerous his is not all the way known. One of the possible explanations states that the vocal cords would act as a kind of ‘bubble blowing set’ when singing, so that very small droplets would linger in the air for a very long time. The connection between corona infections and choir singing was discovered at the beginning of March 52 members of a Seattle choir became infected after a rehearsal.
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