Story by USAG Stuttgart Public Affairs
UPDATE, March 12: The bazaar has been cancelled.
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On Tuesday evening, garrison leaders, MWR staff and event organizers met to discuss the scheduled Spring Bazaar. The current plan is to hold the Spring Bazaar as planned.
Here are some things the group took into account:
- Currently, there are no COVID-19 cases within the Stuttgart Military community
- Five people are self-isolating because they had some contact with a positive-tested person. None are currently showing symptoms
- There are roughly 80 vendors, who were at USAG Rheinland-Pfalz (Kaiserslautern) this past weekend. Of those two or three Italian vendors are not coming to Stuttgart, due to supplies and/or their desire to return home in support of family
- Other vendors, from COVID-19 affected areas, were already asked to not participate this year
- People with concerns can choose to not attend the event
If you attend, here’s how you can help:
- Practice social distancing
- Don’t bunch up together around popular vendors
- If the area is crowded, wait a while and visit another part of the bazaar.
Here’s what the garrison will do to mitigate the risk:
- All vendors will undergo a screening of travel and potential COVID-19 contacts, prior to setting up. (They are coming from Kaiserslautern, so there is little chance they went to COVID-19 area since then)
- At the bazaar, there will be signs with CDC-approved hygiene procedures
- Open doors to avoid transmission by using handles
- Two hand washing stations at the tent entrance/exit and hand sanitizer stations throughout the area
- Staff will clean surfaces every 30 minutes
- Signs at cashiers will encourage social distancing.
The garrison commander routinely monitors COVID-19 updates from off-post in our local community and on post. If a significant change occurs, meaning positive tests with the Stuttgart military community or a change in the State of Baden-Württemberg directives regarding public events, things could change. As the situation develops, look to the USAG Stuttgart Facebook page for current updates. Another resources is the garrison’s COVID-19 web page.
