ATLANTA — This weekend, 40,000 people are expected to travel to downtown Atlanta, packing into the Georgia World Congress Center to show off their cheerleading skills on a national stage.
Some medical experts said they are worried that this weekend's Cheersports Nationals cheerleading competition could become a COVID-19 super-spreader event.
About 1,500 cheerleading teams are registered for the competition with some teams traveling from as far as California for the event.
Public Health Microbiologist Dr. Amber Schmidtke said the timing of the event couldn't be more worrisome as the presence of the more transmissible COVID-19 variant strain has become more prevalent in Atlanta.
“The fear is that these people will gather and then take the variant home with them to their communities and plant the seed," Schmidtke said.
Event organizers said that in order to keep the virus from spreading, they will require people to wear masks -- except when an individual is competing.
In addition, organizers said spectators must sit six feet apart and said that all surfaces will be disinfected.
And while strict safety protocols will be in place for the competition, medical experts say what's happening at the arena is not what is most concerning to them.
"The worry is all of the ancillary things that gon with a tournament like this," Schmidtke. "Teams that go out to dinner together and teams that hang out together without masks."
Clinical assistant professor at PCOM Georgia, and board-certified family medicine physician Dr. Jeffrey Trawick said that if people don't take the proper precautions, any event has the potential to exacerbate the transmission of the virus.
“Given the age of these participants, the risk is reasonable…I won’t say it’s low, but it’s reasonable," Dr. Trawick said.
Just last month, the GWCC hosted a girls youth volleyball tournament that saw an attendance of over 10,000. Next weekend, the center will host another volleyball tournament that's expected to draw more than 5,000 people.
The company behind this weekend's competition is Varsity Spirit, the nation's largest organizer of cheer competitions. The same group just announced another large championship scheduled for later this month in Texas will now take place virtually.