Event bans enforced in Czech Republic, Greece, Poland

Public events taking place in the Czech Republic and Greece – and now Poland – are the latest to face restrictions as governments around Europe attempt to crack down on the continuing spread of Covid-19.

In the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Health today (10 March) imposed a ban on all public events with more than 100 people, extending a previous ban that applied only to events of over 5,000 capacity.

The ban, effective from 6 p.m. today, includes planned music concerts, markets and major festivals including the upcoming Prague International Film Festival. The country currently has 40 reported cases of the virus.

Serge Grimaux, owner of Prague venue Fórum Karlín, confirms to IQ that the ban “means that all events scheduled from now until whenever activities will start over again will be postponed to a later date, currently in the coming autumn.”

The Ministry of Health in Greece has also announced new preventative measures, including a ban on large events and conferences until 5 April. All sporting events in the country will be played behind closed doors for the next two weeks.

“The Greek government announced yesterday, that all indoor-arena shows with a minimum capacity of 1,000 people, will be cancelled/postponed until further notification,” Mary Gavala of Greek ticketing service Viva Wallet tells IQ.

“The next two weeks are important for all of Europe as far as I can see.”

“The next two weeks are important for all of Europe as far as I can see”

The measures “will be re-evaluated before they expire”, according to the Ministry of Health spokesperson Sotiris Tsiodras.

In Poland, the government has enforced a ban on events over 500 people. According to a source on the ground in the country, no information has been given as to how long the ban will last for.

The Polish division of Live Nation has cancelled three upcoming concerts, including today’s show by Mura Masa and Carlos Santana’s performance on 17 March at the 22,000-capacity Tauron Arena Kraków. Live Nation Polska states it is “working hard to find new date[s]” for cancelled acts “to perform in similar location[s]”.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte today extended a ban on public gatherings to the whole country. The restrictions had previously only applied to regions in the north of the country, where the outbreak was concentrated.

The country has been at the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Europe, reporting more than 9,000 cases of the virus so far.

In France, a ban on public events of over 5,000 attendees has been extended to those of more than 1,000. Certain local authorities are also placing restrictions on smaller events.

Photo: Arkouman/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) (cropped)

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