60 members of the Skagit Valley Chorale attended a singing practice at Mount Vernon Presbyterian.
Unfortunately, 45 of them caught coronavirus, and doctors say the transmission was airborne as they had been social distancing.
When the members arrived, they applied hand sanitizer at the entrance. The singers refrained from usual handshakes and hugs as they greeted each other.
They spent two and a half hours practicing before going their separate ways.
But after three weeks, 45 of them have tested positive for COVID-19, and two passed away.
Scientists have warned that social-distancing does not completely guarantee that you will not contract the virus.
Health officials, who concluded that the virus was airborne, were also shocked by the case.
Eight members who were at the practice told the Los Angeles Times that nobody was sneezing or coughing during the rehearsal on March 6.
When coronavirus started to spread in Washington, Skagit Valley Chorale leaders debated whether to go on with their weekly practice or not.
The choir’s conductor, Adam Burdick, informed 121 members in an email that the rehearsal would proceed amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus.”
Members avoided direct physical contact and everybody came to the practice with their own sheet music.
Some singers helped set up and remove chairs while others enjoyed some mandarins that had been placed on a table.
According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, when the virus is suspended in the air under laboratory conditions, it can remain infectious for 3 long hours.
One of the researchers said it is possible that the ‘forceful breathing action of singing’ dispersed particles with virus around the room.
Other members of the choir group were contacted by health workers and were told to self-isolate if they develop any symptoms.
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