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Chorus America staff is always happy to answer specific questions from members with personalized information and resources. In our new High Notes blog feature, Member Questions, we will periodically share answers to frequently asked questions with our whole community. Please feel free to email [email protected] with additional questions or feedback.
Q: As more people begin to get vaccinated, are there any new guidelines from the CDC around singing together again? If all of our singers get vaccinated and we wait the recommended amount of time afterwards, is it safe for us to sing together again?
Because we are still learning about the vaccine’s effectiveness, the answer unfortunately is that currently there continues to be no way to eliminate all risk from gathering singers – even vaccinated singers – together in person.
On March 9, the CDC released new guidelines stating that small groups of fully vaccinated people can gather indoors without masks. They do not specifically state the size of a small group, but our interpretation from reading the guidelines is that it refers to only a handful of people. They have not released any new guidance specifically around singers and choruses.
The CDC still recommends that even fully vaccinated people stay away from medium and large groups, because of unanswered questions about how effective vaccines are against variants of the virus and how well COVID-19 vaccines keep vaccinated people from spreading the disease among others. And they emphasize the importance of taking continued precautions like masking and being in well-ventilated spaces. If you do decide to gather singers in person, you should strictly adhere to all possible precautions to reduce the risk.
Some questions to consider include:
- Are your singers’ families or households fully vaccinated?
- What’s going on in terms of variant spread in your community?
- What is the space you would be gathering in like in terms of room size (if indoors) and ventilation conditions?
The CDC will continue to updated its guidance as more continues to be known. We recommend that choruses look to their local health departments for information specific to their area as well.