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Yukari Tamura Event Forbids Audience Call-and-Response Due to COVID-19 Coronavirus Concerns (Updated)

The official website for voice actress Yukari Tamura announced on Tuesday that the voice actor's "Birthday Event 2020" on Thursday will forbid attendees from doing call-and-response (audience responses during specific sections of a song) during Tamura's performance in an effort to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Tamura is perhaps best known as the voice of protagonist Nanoha Takamachi in the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha anime franchise. She has also voiced characters from such anime as Galaxy Angel (Ranpha), Kanon (Mai Kawasumi), Clannad (Mei Sunohara), Tantei Opera Milky Holmes (Saku Tooyama), Kill la Kill (Nui Harime), and Schwarzes Marken (Beatrix Brehmer). She has performed theme songs for many of the anime in which she has voiced a role, including Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Katanagatari, Oreimo, No-Rin, and I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying.

The first reported cases of the COVD-19 coronavirus occurred in Wuhan, China in December, and then began to spread in varying rates and intensities across many parts of the globe through incubation in human hosts. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world health emergency on January 30. As of Tuesday, the WHO reported that there are 80,239 infected individuals worldwide, with 77,780 of them in China and 157 official cases in Japan proper. (The Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, has an additional 691 infected individuals.) 2,666 individuals have died from the disease in China. The WHO reports one death due to COVID-19 in Japan proper. As of Tuesday, a fourth passenger of the Diamond Princess cruise ship died in a Japanese hospital, although the cause of death has not been reported.

Source: Yukari Tamura's website via Otakomu

Update: The organizers have since announced on Wednesday that they canceled the event outright. Thanks, omiya.