There is no indication two weeks after Lollapalooza that the music festival contributed to a spike in Covid-19 infections, a Chicago health official said Thursday, despite attracting an estimated 385,000 attendees.
«There’s no evidence at this point of a superspreader event, and there’s no evidence of substantial impact to Chicago’s Covid epidemiology,» Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a news conference. Among several hundred thousand festivalgoers, officials have identified only 203 cases of Covid-19 about two weeks after the festival, according to Arwady. Of those,58 are Chicago residents. Another 138 are Illinois residents and seven are from other states. «We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge at this point, by my estimation,» she said. Amid climbing Covid-19 cases across the country, there were concerns Chicago’s famed four-day music festival could contribute to a rise in infections when it kicked off late last month, even with the variety of mitigation strategies organizers put in place, including required proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid-19 test. Officials believe 90% of attendees were vaccinated, Arwady said, though she said the health department has used a figure of 88%, calling that a «conservative estimate.» Among vaccinated attendees, there were 127 diagnosed with Covid-19, Arwady said. That’s just 0.0004%, or four in 10,000 vaccinated attendees.
