ALL THAT REMAINS has canceled its appearances at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival (September 11) in Danville, Virginia and the Inkcarceration festival (September 12) in Mansfield, Ohio after one of the bandmembers tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier today (Saturday, September 11), ALL THAT REMAINS frontman Phil Labonte released the following statement: “Hey everyone, Phil here. We are wicked bummed to do this but we are going to have to pull out of Blue Ridge and Inkcarceration. Everyone in ATR is vaccinated but one of our guys tested positive with a breakthrough case of COVID. We take this very seriously and don’t want to risk contributing to the spread. We love you all and we will see you on ‘The Fall Of Ideals’ anniversary celebration tour.”
In the past a couple of months, a number of other high-profile hard rock and heavy metal artists have also called off shows or played concerts without members who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The cancelations and the increased number of COVID-19 infections are driven in large part by the fact that the delta variant of the coronavirus, now the most common strain circulating in the United States, has a supercharged transmissibility, driven in part by how the mutated virus behaves in the body after infection.
Experts have repeatedly said that a COVID-19 vaccine is the single most important tool for preventing infections and protecting against moderate and severe disease. Some variants, such as delta, may be more likely to cause breakthrough infections, but vaccinations have shown protection against symptomatic disease caused by delta. Unvaccinated people are more likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 than people who are fully vaccinated. In the United States, 97% of the hospitalizations over the past three months, since delta came on the scene, have been in unvaccinated people. Ninety-nine percent of the people who have died of COVID-19 in the last three months were unvaccinated.
Masks reduce the risk of an infected person’s spreading the virus and provide some protection for the wearer against becoming infected. A new study found that increased mask-wearing led to a significant reduction in the percentage of people with COVID-19, based on symptom reporting and SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. The researchers tested both cloth and surgical masks and found especially strong evidence that surgical masks are effective in preventing COVID-19.
