Addendum to Kenosha County Kickstart plan gives further guidance to event organizers

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KENOSHA COUNTY ⏤ On Wednesday, Kenosha County officials released an addendum to the county’s Kickstart plan, providing guidance to event organizers on how to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Important to note is the emphasis officials put on the addendum being recommendations not binding by law.

However, they are the best practices as Kenosha County Health Officer Dr. Jen Freiheit has determined as of this week.

“While the recommendations in the original Kickstart document remain valid, that plan was created at a time when there were still not relatively large-scale public events occurring in the community. This year, we know that these events will be coming back, and so we now have this addendum available for organizers to consult as they make their plans.”
Kenosha County Health Officer Dr. Jen Freiheit

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What addendum adds

Officials note the original 2020 Kickstart plan still serves as a long list of advisory practices for stopping the spread of COVID-19 locally across the board.

However, the addendum creates different categories of events dependent on various factors and offers more individualized practices for each category.

The new addendum categorizes events into three risk levels — high, medium and lower. Officials split events up based on factors such as: the number of attendees, site capacity, indoors versus outdoors, the number of event sites and days and patterns of attendance.

It also provides a safety checklist that event organizers can consult.

Each category breaks down as such:

High-level (category 1) risk events include those involving more than 10,000 people on site per day.
Medium-level (category 2) risk events are those occurring indoors involving 500 to 10,000 people per day. This also includes outdoor events involving 1,500 to 10,000 people per day. The category further includes multi-day events with fewer than 1,500 people per day that include on-site accommodations such as camping.
Lower-level (category 3) risk events include indoor events involving fewer than 500 people per day. The category also includes outdoor events with fewer than 1,500 per day.

Organizers of high- and mid-level events asked to submit plan

County officials are asking organizers of high- and medium-level events to submit a COVID-19 Safe Event Plan. Kenosha County Public Health’s staff will review and approve those plans.

Staff are also available to review and discuss any event, even lower-level gatherings, for the safety of the community, Freiheit said.

Kenosha County Public Health also encourages event organizers to ask attendees to become vaccinated at least two weeks before the event. Officials say this will help to improve safety for all who attend.

“We look forward to working with organizers to facilitate a safe transition back to holding these events, while also taking steps to ensure that people can participate or attend them safely,” Freiheit said.

The original Kenosha County Kickstart plan may be viewed at http://bit.ly/KCKickstart, and the new events addendum is available at http://bit.ly/KCKickstartAddendum.

You may also view the addendum in image form below.