COVID-19 Safety
Boston Balboa takes its precautions against the COVID-19 pandemic very seriously.
Please do not attend a Boston Balboa event if you are sick. If you have a known COVID-19 exposure within 10 days of the event, please do not attend if you have any symptoms at all. All Boston Balboa events require suitable masking. If you are unable to attend due to illness or recent exposure we will refund your admission upon request.
If you test positive within 10 days after a Boston Balboa event, please let us know by email via info@bostonbalboa.org so that we may provide contact tracing for the rest of the community. (we will keep your personal information private.)
COVID-19 is an airborne illness. New variants continue to arise due to mutation that arises as new infections and transmissions continue. It is important to distinguish between metrics above which there’s risk of the healthcare system being overwhelmed, and metrics above which there’s significant risk of individual transmission and negative health impacts. As funding changes, we have fewer sources of data, but you can find wastewater numbers at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/wastewater-surveillance-reporting: select Trends, then select MWRA North (and deselect Amherst) to see the Boston-area data.
During partner dancing, and Balboa in particular, social distancing is not possible, and we have sustained, physical proximity and contact with multiple people. Dancing is also an athletic activity, and athletic activities have been shown to greatly increase the amount of aerosol particulates that we breathe out, which adds risk of increased viral load if a dancer is infected.
From New York’s Frim Fram Jam, in response to a question about their safety policies:
Before anything else – the health and safety of our community and its members is our highest priority and drives any decision. If it means we risk income, interrupt our schedule, or have a stricter policy than other events in our community, that is a sacrifice we are willing and happy to make.
Secondly – to address your comment that our policy is “more restrictive than the subway, stadiums, concerts, library” – you are exactly right. It is, and that is by design. From our perspective, intense, prolonged, crowded, face-to-face, full-contact physical activity in a closed environment is a riskier proposition than a (relatively) short ride in a subway making multiple stops with open doors, open-air stadiums with primarily sitting attendees, or a library where people are sitting quietly at a fair distance from one another. We hope you can see that difference too. We’d say that our closest comparison is the gym, but even there you don’t have the proximity and direct contact that we do social dancing. This is a high-risk activity and we are trying to do everything we can to make it as safe as possible. You may want to have a look at this article in the NYT, “Why the Air at the Gym May Be More Likely to Spread Covid:” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/24/well/move/covid-gym-air.html
Mask requirements
Masks continue to be one of the single most effective means of preventing transmission. For the safety of our entire community, we will be enforcing a mask requirement while indoors for class, during practice, and socializing.
- masks must be N95/KN95/KF94 (suitable masks will be provided at the door if you forgot to bring one or do not have one of sufficient quality)
- masks must be worn over both the nose and mouth at all times. (you may briefly remove your mask to drink a sip of water while distanced.)
Please make sure your mask is well-fitting for dancing. If your mask is not covering your nose and mouth, we may remind you to do so. If we have to remind you a 3rd time, you may be asked to leave the venue.
Vaccination
Vaccination provides additional protection for you and for others sharing spaces with you. Vaccine cards are no longer consistently updated when receiving boosters, so it is impractical to require or check vaccine status. We encourage you to get vaccinated, but we require you to mask in our spaces.