PUBLISHED ONOctober 17, 2022 11:07 AMByDrima ChakrabortyK-pop fans are often very passionate about everything they do for their idols: From buying out billboards to wish their idols a happy birthday, to ‘fan actions’ like printing out banners for a whole concert audience to hold up.
Carats (fans of the boy band Seventeen) who saw their idols live last Thursday (Oct 13) at their Be The Sun concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium have mobilised and taken their dedication and organisational skills to the next level, by creating a spreadsheet to trace Covid-19 infections.
Late on Saturday night, fans started sharing their positive antigen rapid test (ART) results on Twitter, listing which section they were seated at and their queue numbers, to warn others.
With the threat of Covid-19 Omicron sub-variant XBB looming, Carats took no risk.
A Twitter user going by the name Mia started compiling the tweets into one Twitter thread.
[embed]https://twitter.com/chans0cks/status/1581347094396563457[/embed]
Then fans took it a step further, compiling the info into a whole spreadsheet titled Be The Sun SG Covid Tracker. It is organised into 12 tabs including the different categories of seats and standing tickets available, and further into different seating sections within each category.
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Fans listed their ART test results, what symptoms they were experiencing, and also noted down “your whereabouts and what you wore, for others to know if they were near you” in a remarks column.
Fans meticulously wrote down what time they arrived, where they went to have lunch and which fan groups they had interacted with, while leaving positive notes and apologies for those they came into contact with.
A TikTok user going by the name Xuanlai shared the spreadsheet in a video with the caption: “Another one bites the dust” but later commented that “internet trolls got their hands on the link”.
[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@xuanlai/video/7154976251919256833[/embed]
Trolls reportedly tampered with the spreadsheet and deleted entries.
No matter, because the undeterred Carats salvaged what they could and created a Google Form for legitimate responses to be vetted before they are added to the new spreadsheet..
The Tracker 2.0 is now a read-only spreadsheet that, as of writing, has almost 200 responses.
There were positive vibes all around, no pun intended, as fans asked each other to stay hydrated and even managed to inject humour into their predicament.
ALSO READ: Seventeen's concert was my first and I would pay $300 to watch them again
drimac@asiaone.com
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