Consultation on COVID management for IETF 115 London

[IETF Executive Director <[e-mail]>]

The IETF Administration LLC and IESG are considering what COVID management to implement for IETF 115 London and now seek community feedback on our proposed way forward.

First, some data:
- For IETF 113 Vienna we had 9 reported cases from 314 onsite participants (2.9%)
- For IETF 114 Philadelphia we had 16 reported cases and 2 people who were ill but tested negative, from 622 onsite participants (2.6% at 16, 2.9% at 18)


We propose to continue with COVID management restrictions for IETF 115 London and to base these on those in place for IETF 114, with some notable tightening as follows:

1.  Vaccines
We propose to continue to require vaccines, continue with a self-declaration at registration and no other form of checking, and to amend the language to include boosters as follows:
	"I confirm that I am fully vaccinated and boosted with a vaccine from the WHO Emergency Use List."

We propose to continue with the following guidance on what that means:
	"As the definition of fully vaccinated and boosted varies between countries, please answer this based on the guidance of your national health protection agency or equivalent body."


2.  Masks
We propose the following set of rules regarding masks:

- Masks must be worn in both meeting rooms and common areas set aside for our exclusive use.  This is a tightening from IETF 114 where masks could be removed in common areas.

- Masks can be removed for eating and drinking but that should not be an excuse to leave them off for long periods.  Previously no guidance was provided on leaving a mask off for a long period.

- Active speakers in sessions who are at the front of the room presenting or speaking in the mic queue, can remove their mask while speaking if they need to remove the mask to be understood.  This restriction to being understood is a tightening of the rule from IETF 114.

- Exemption certificates will not be honoured.  This is the same as for IETF 114.

- Masks must be FFP2 or equivalent and we will continue to make those freely available.  This is the same as for IETF 114, however at that meeting there were multiple examples of people wearing surgical or even less effective masks and little action was taken.  We propose for IETF 115 that a group of senior LLC/Secretariat staff will manage this by offering those wearing such masks, FFP2 masks as replacements.

- Finally, we note that we are in active negotiations with the venue for their staff to wear masks when in our exclusive use areas.


3.  Testing
We propose to continue with voluntary testing and to make rapid antigen tests freely available to onsite participants.


Please provide feedback on this proposal either to the public list admin-discuss@ietf, or directly to me at [e-mail], before 29th August 2022.


-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[e-mail]