P-05-1082 Allow choirs to rehearse indoors if they produce a full risk assessment to prevent C-19 infection

P-05-1082 Allow choirs to rehearse indoors if they produce a full risk assessment to prevent C-19 infection

This petition was submitted by Jon Wilks having collected a total of 498 signatures.

Text of Petition:                     

Choirs in Wales are prevented from rehearsing indoors by current Welsh Government C19 guidance which discourages singing indoors. The guidance takes no account of measures which choirs can apply such as face shields, distancing, limiting singing volume, surface & hand sanitising and ventilation. Choirs cannot continue to rehearse outdoors during the winter. The guidance should be changed to allow organised singing indoors if a risk assessment and plan is devised & implemented.

Additional Information:

Cowbridge Male Voice Choir is a vibrant, growing and successful Male Voice Choir which has been rehearsing outdoors in line with Welsh Government rules. Current Government rules allow up to 15 people to meet indoors, but not to sing. This guidance appears to be based on a limited research experiment (https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1241/5908276) involving measuring exhaled droplets produced during singing. The research took no account of sensible measures which can be used to reduce risk and which Cowbridge and other choirs can apply.

Research by Lund University published Sept 2020 (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200908101621.htm) showed particle emission when singing was reduced to ordinary speech levels by prevention measures.

Choirs like Cowbridge cannot continue to rehearse outdoors during the coming winter months and should be allowed to rehearse indoors in groups of 15 if infection prevention measures are applied.

Status

This petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on 16/03/2021.

The petition was closed as part of a review of all petitions currently under consideration at the Petitions Committee's final meeting of the Fifth Senedd, in light of the upcoming election and the consideration given to this issue to date.

Full details of the consideration of this petition by the Committee and related documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.

It was first considered by the Petitions Committee on 26/01/2021

Senedd Constituency and Region

• Vale of Glamorgan
• South Wales Central

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