ESL to implement health measures for IEM Katowice playoff audience

A health crew will check the temperature of all IEM Katowice attendees before they enter the arena.

Photo via ESL

ESL updated its health and security guidelines today for the IEM Katowice playoffs, which will kick off on Friday, Feb. 28 at the Spodek Arena.

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Although ESL didn’t provide the exact reason for the changes, it’s likely due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, which has already infected over 80,000 people and killed 2,700 around the globe. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the respiratory infection a global health emergency on Jan. 30.

ESL has worked in cooperation with the local government and health authorities to add precautions for everyone attending the playoffs. “As part of the precautions, we have added health screening for all attendees, including temperature checks at entryways, additional medical professionals onsite, and additional sanitization stations onsite,” ESL said.

The medical staff will do a simple temperature check for everyone who enters the Spodek Arena and a quick interview at a checkpoint if it’s necessary. Players, press, and guests have reported already been taken care of.

“We’ve ensured that players, press and special guests coming from high-risk areas hold a valid health certificate or were requested to attend additional health screenings,” ESL said.

ESL acted quickly to try to make Katowice safer. Measures such as offering additional hygiene stations play a big part in avoiding contamination. At time of writing, it’s unclear if ESL will expand these precautions to the other tournaments that the company organizes.

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Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.