Argentina's Main Opera House Becomes COVID-19 Test Center

In Buenos Aires city, the Columbus Theatre (Teatro Colon), one of the world’s most important opera houses, offered its facilities and staff to support "Detect", a program promoted by the Health Ministry to perform COVID-19 tests.

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In rotating shifts of four hours per day, theater staff will support health workers by performing tasks such as receiving and orienting people who wish to get tested for COVID-19.

"In this opportunity, we need you to fulfill a new role and support the Detect campaign, which will be launched from next Friday 29," Columbus Theatre Director Maria Victoria Alcaraz told her team.

So far, over 200 workers are registered to collaborate in support tasks that are not mandatory but totally collaborative.

Like other cultural institutions, the Columbus Theater had to reconvert its activities due to the closure of public performances. Last year, it returned 140,000 tickets previously sold for an artistic season that could not take place.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 300 employees have voluntarily collaborated in health activities such as the management of a hotel for preventive isolation, street awareness campaigns, and mask making. 

This Argentine cultural center will resume its activities as epidemiological conditions permit in 2021.