Performance anxiety: Hong Kong Philharmonic says it may not play without new guidelines to prevent another mass quarantining
- In a recent meeting, management promised musicians that it was working on stepped-up antivirus measures
- The ensemble’s management has reportedly approached the Centre for Health Protection about formulating clear safety criteria
The Hong Kong orchestra that made headlines for being quarantined en masse after one of its musicians contracted Covid-19 has said it will consider not performing again until health authorities issue clear guidelines for avoiding a repeat of the current situation, sources say.
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra was at the centre of a Covid-19 scare earlier this month after bass clarinettist Lorenzo Antonio Iosco, who played in two concerts attended by some 1,400 audience members – including the city’s leader and home affairs chief – tested positive for the coronavirus.
More than 90 musicians were dispatched to a government camp, with their two-week quarantine set to end on Saturday.
Sources told the Post that the orchestra’s top brass held a meeting with all its members on Thursday and informed them that it had made clear to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), the local authority responsible for contact tracing and quarantine operations, that the group will not perform again in the absence of protocols ensuring the whole cast would not have to be quarantined if another infection were detected.
Some members had expressed anger at the quarantine arrangement, saying some soloists were not even performing on the same stage as Iosco, while other musicians had entered from the opposite side of the stage and had little contact with the infected clarinettist.