The coronavirus didn’t circulate widely at a massive New York City anime convention in November that was famously linked to one of the first U.S. cases of the virus’ omicron variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed in a study Thursday, a feat the health agency credited to the event’s indoor mask policy and Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
The CDC tracked down coronavirus test results for 4,560 of the Anime NYC convention’s more than 50,000 attendees, just 119 (or 2.6%) of which came back positive, meaning “evidence of widespread transmission during the event was not identified” (the CDC didn’t identify the convention by name, but its description matched Anime NYC).
Only one person with Covid-19 ended up in the hospital, and no deaths were reported.
The CDC thinks the convention’s strict Covid-19 mitigation rules—attendees needed to wear masks and show proof of partial coronavirus vaccination—and the Javits Center’s air filtration system probably helped prevent the virus from spreading uncontrollably.
Some transmission may have taken place outside the convention hall: Attendees who caught Covid-19 were more likely to report visiting bars (16.7% of positives and 6.9% of negatives), nightclubs (10.4% versus 3%) or karaoke venues (18.8% versus 2.4%).
A separate CDC study published Thursday zeroed in on a Minnesota man who attended Anime NYC and later became the second person in the United States diagnosed with omicron: Out of a group of 30 people that included the Minnesota man and 29 close contacts from the convention, 23 took coronavirus tests and 16 tested positive, most of whom also visited bars, restaurants and karaoke venues.
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