2 Comic Book Market Staff Diagnosed With COVID-19 – News

The organizers of Comic Market (Comiket), Japan’s largest event for the sale of self-published dōjinshi work, reported Thursday that two of the event staff tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Comic Market 99 ran from December 30 to 31 with limited attendance, and these two comic market committee members worked on December 30.

The two committee members took a PCR test for COVID-19 on January 4 and received positive results the next day. The two had reported symptoms on Jan. 2 and 3, which the committee said would indicate they were contagious with COVID-19 as of Dec.31. During this time, the two had close contact with another member of staff who worked on Dec. 30 and 31. This third staff member is not showing symptoms of COVID-19, but is waiting for the results of a PCR test.

The Comic Book Market Committee reported that the two members who tested positive for COVID-19 and the third member who had been in close contact with them all stayed in the same hotel room. The committee did not confirm any other infections or close contacts related to Comic Market 99.

Since Wednesday, the committee has been looking for the contacts of the two members who tested positive for COVID-19 and will announce its findings as soon as possible on the event site.

The committee stressed that it was following the basic COVID-19 policy that the Japanese seat of government for the response to the novel coronavirus issued on November 19, as well as other guidelines for event planners, the metropolis. of Tokyo, the venue of the Tokyo Big Sight event and the DOUJIN JAPAN 2020 Project. The committee also urged all Comic Market 99 attendees to consult healthcare professionals if they have any concerns or are exhibiting symptoms. He also asked any participant who is aware of a possible infection to contact the committee.

The Comic Market Committee announced in August that Comic Market 99 will be an in-person event for the first time in two years. Comic Market 99 required participants to present proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test.

Comic Market 99 controlled attendance by selling a limited number of general attendance tickets, each limited to a particular area of ​​the event. Prior to Comic Market 96 (pictured left) in August 2019, the event did not charge an entrance fee. (The event introduced a participation fee for Comic Market 96 due to increased costs to hold the event over four days at two different venues – a consequence of the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics using the space Tokyo Big Sight event as the media headquarters.)

Comic Market 99 was originally scheduled for winter 2020, but has been postponed to the Golden Week holidays in 2021 (which took place in April and May) due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation. and planning issues given the eastern Tokyo Big Sight exhibit hall would remain unavailable until fall 2021 due to the Olympics. However, the Comic Book Market Committee again postponed the event to March due to COVID-19.

The Comic Market 98 event which was scheduled to take place May 2-5, 2020 has been canceled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The event was scheduled for May 2020 instead of the normal August schedule due to the original Tokyo 2020 Olympics schedule in July-August 2020.

Comic Market’s last in-person event was Comic Market 97 in December 2019, which drew a record 750,000 attendees over four days.

Source: Comic book market Going through Nijipoi