Coronavirus fells Icelandic Eurovision hopefuls, they won’t now perform live

The Icelandic entry at rehearsal. Photo: EBU / Thomas Hanses
The Icelandic entry at rehearsal. Photo: EBU / Thomas Hanses

The Icelandic entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, currently underway in Rotterdam, will not be performed live after one of the band tested positive for coronavirus.

Iceland’s entry Dadi og Gagnamagnid should have rehearsed twice today and then taken part in Thursday’s semi-final. Now they have moved into isolation and a recording from an earlier rehearsal will be broadcast instead.

On Sunday, a member of the Icelandic delegation also tested positive for coronavirus but everyone else in the group was clear.

Eurovision: A DutchNews guide

Earlier on Wednesday, event producer Sietse Bakker said just 10 of the 20,000 coronavirus tests carried out on performers, crew and Ahoy staff have proved positive so far. They included the Icelandic cases and a member of the Polish delegation.

No reports of infections among fans have yet been made. In total 3,500 people are being admitted to each show. They have to have a negative coronavirus test and may also be pulled out for random testing.

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