State health director: ‘Hour by hour’ changes in coronavirus outbreak led to limits on Arnold festival
Posted at 9:15 PM
New guidance from the CDC and the spread of the coronavirus prompted changes to the Arnold Sports Festival. The director of the Ohio Department of Health said the decision reflects a rapidly evolving situation.
The coronavirus outbreak is a rapidly evolving situation, and Ohio’s top health official said that’s the reason for a major last-minute change of plans for this week’s Arnold Sports Festival.
The festival begins Thursday, and this year, spectators will be able to attend only the Arnold finals on Saturday. A trade show has been canceled, and although other events could go on as planned, the public will not be allowed to attend them.
“We were closely monitoring the situation and talking with Columbus Public Health quite often to see what their preparation was. And, again, I just have to say everything they did was right and outstanding,” said Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health. “But you know, hour by hour, we learn new things about the disease.”
City officials originally planned to hold a news conference Tuesday morning at the convention center but canceled it an hour before it was to begin. Acton was in northeastern Ohio Tuesday morning before returning for the announcement at the Statehouse with Gov. Mike DeWine, Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts and others.
In making the decision, state and local leaders said they consulted with Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
“This is a very sad moment for us ... this is the first time that we have had to postpone the event,” Schwarzenegger said by a phone video link during the Tuesday news conference.
Although officials had been planning no changes in the festival since COVID-19 emerged publicly in China in January, Acton said new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forced them to re-evaluate.
The CDC said Tuesday that public officials should consider asking organizers of large gatherings to modify, postpone or cancel them.
The guidance recommended that officials take into account the community’s well-being and also the emergency-response capacity based on the duration and size of the event. An estimated 200,000 people visit the Columbus festival each year.
Although the health departments of Columbus and Ohio are among the largest of their types in the country, Acton said the number of people who would have attended the festival exceeded the departments’ capacities. That, combined with the U.S. seeing the virus spread to more states, led to the decision, Acton said.
“This is a risk-benefit decision. You can make it a lot of different ways. There’s no one right way,” Acton said. “I can tell you there was rigorous conversation all day from all stakeholders.”
Columbus is not the only city to reconsider hosting large-scale events as COVID-19 spreads. Some world leaders have suggested
that the Summer Olympic Games, which are to start in late July in Tokyo, should be canceled or postponed. In addition,
NCAA leaders have discussed what to do about the March Madness college-basketball tournaments, Acton said.
Special precautions will have to be taken for any large-scale event as the COVID-19 outbreak widens, Acton said. But the Arnold festival, she said, is different from a basketball game or another singular event.
“It’s one thing to go to a basketball game for two hours where you can wash your hands ... sit by someone, and get out and kind of be close to home,” Acton said. “It’s very different when you have (over 200,000) people traveling from 80 countries.”