“On September 1, 2022, CDC recommended updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech for people ages 12 years and older and from Moderna for people ages 18 years and older.”
On August 11, 2021, the CDC has streamlined Covid-19 guidance to help the public better protect themselves and understand their risk. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0811-covid-guidance.html This release has more to do with individuals and how to protect themselves than with how businesses can protect their patrons.
The CDC currently has two separate maps to follow, they are community levels and transmission levels for the state and country. The two maps are the “Covid 19 Community Levels” map and the “Community Transmissions” map. The “Covid 19 Community Levels” map is to help communities decide what prevention steps to take based on the latest data. Levels can be low, medium, or high and are determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area. According to this tool, currently, all the counties in Arizona are Community Level: Low except for Apache County which is Community Level: Medium.
The “COVID-19 Integrated County View Community Transmission” map shows the actual community transmission levels of Covid in each county in each state. This is the map that Monkey Paw Entertainment has been following since 2021. According to the “COVID-19 Integrated County View” map currently, the counties of Yavapai, Maricopa, Gila, Navajo, Apache, Yuma, Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz and La Paz are High Transmission; Coconino and Pinal are Substantial Transmission; and Mohave, Graham, and Greenlee are Moderate Transmissions. There are no current counties that are Low transmission in Arizona. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=all_states&list_select_county=&data-type=Risk
The Covid variant, XBB.1.5, is still the dominant variant in the United States.
Also, if you are worried about Covid, don’t forget about the bivalent booster.
It is still influenza season, so the flu vaccine is still available for those that have not received it.
We, at Monkey Paw Entertainment, have been watching a combination of the community levels and transmission levels along with the percentages of the bivalent booster to make our final decision on whether we will have a 100% mask mandate or make masks recommended. We have decided for Kikori Con 2023 to have masks be strongly recommended but not required due to the Low Covid Community Levels in most of Arizona and the low levels of influenza transmissions in all of Arizona.
If you have any concerns about Covid-19 or the flu during the show, please wear a mask. Also, please wash your hands regularly with soap and water. If you fill ill, please stay home.
If you choose to not attend this year due to our Covid-19 policy, we will be allowing anyone after the show ends to request their badge be rolled to 2024 if you didn’t use it this year. All you will need to do is email sales@monkey-paw.com after March 20th 2023, with the email you used to purchase your badge and request your purchases be rolled to our 2024 event.
If you have questions or comments on this policy, please email safety@monkey-paw.com
ref:
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0811-covid-guidance.html