IE 11 Not Supported

For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers.

Ticketmaster Considers Health Passports for Event Entry

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be creating a new industry around health verifications, otherwise known as health passports. Ticketmaster is considering such a verification for entry into concerts and other events.

Ticketmaster
Shutterstock
(TNS) — Ticketmaster may be changing the landscape of how you attend events in the near future by requiring concert-goers have a health passport verifying their vaccination status.

Just one more thing on the laundry list of items you will need before heading out to that event: keys, mask, hand sanitizer, and now a negative COVID-19 test.

As first reported by Dave Brooks with Billboard, Ticketmaster is working on a plan that includes the use of your smartphone to verify the COVID-19 status of fans between a 24-to-72-hour window prior to the ticketed event.

While details are still up in the air, the plan includes three elements the ticketing agency will use to accomplish its goal: the Ticketmaster digital ticket app, third-party health corporations such as CLEAR Heath Pass, and testing providers such as Labcorp.

It should be noted that according to Billboard "the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved any third-party companies to provide the complex technology needed to deliver real-time vaccination results."

HOW DOES IT WORK?

After you purchase a ticket for an event, fans would need to verify they've been vaccinated or provide proof they tested negative for COVID-19 about 24 to 72 hours ahead of the event itself.

Ticketmaster states they would not keep or have access to a fan's medical records. Concert-goers would need to instruct the partnering lab to send their results to the health pass company.

Fans on Twitter were quick to respond to how they felt about this new plan.

Per Brooks, COVID-19 strategy experts (now a thing!) like Marianne Herman are working with companies like Ticketmaster in their returns to live events with large attendance.

"In order for live events to return, technology and science are going to play huge roles in establishing integrated protocols so that fans, artists, and employees feel safe returning to venues," Herman told Brooks.

Herman's company focuses on assisting venues like Ticketmaster to develop COVID-19 strategies.

©2020 the Houston Chronicle, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.