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ICANN75 Health and Safety

4 August 2022
By Nick Tomasso

Thank you to everyone who helped make the ICANN74 Policy Forum a success. ICANN74 had 1,817 attendees, with 917 participating in person and 900 virtually, and post-meeting survey responses indicate 83% of in-person attendees and 70% of virtual attendees would attend another ICANN Public Meeting under similar circumstances.

As we prepare to bring the community together in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the ICANN75 Annual General Meeting, we remain vigilant and plan to maintain the high level of health and safety protocols that contributed to a successful event in The Hague.

While there are few differences between the health and safety measures in place for ICANN75 when compared to those in force for ICANN74, some requirements for ICANN75 are legally mandated by the Malaysian government.

Currently, the Malaysian government mandates that all travelers are required to download, register and activate the MySejahtera App. MySejahtera is a digital system implemented by the Malaysian government to facilitate contact tracing efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. This app is mandatory for entry and will be verified upon your arrival to Malaysia. It is recommended to download the app and complete the sign-up process at least one week in advance of your trip. Learn more about the application here.

Under Malaysian law, face masks are required to be worn while indoors, and ICANN organization (org) encourages all attendees to be aware of this requirement. In addition, those who test positive for COVID-19 while in Malaysia have a legal requirement to report their positive status to the Malaysian Ministry of Health and must quarantine for seven (7) days. Attendees will have the option to end the quarantine earlier if their supervised test result on Day 4 is negative. The Malaysian government notes that failure to comply with any of the National Recovery Plan Standard Operating Procedures may result in monetary fines and/or jail time. While ICANN is not responsible for the enforcement of Malaysian laws, we encourage all attendees to understand and abide by them.

Improvements for ICANN75

We are also making improvements to ICANN75 based on feedback from the community. ICANN is taking efforts to significantly reduce, or even eliminate, the need for session registrations and waitlists and secondary meeting rooms per session. ICANN org will achieve this by modifying the minimum physical distancing in session rooms when 1.8 meter (6 feet) cannot accommodate the anticipated number of delegates in a session. While we will continue to implement a 1.8 meter (6 feet) physical distance requirement between delegates whenever feasible, where necessary ICANN org will decrease the minimum physical distancing to 1 meter (3 feet), while always maintaining the maximum possible distancing.

Event registration is required, and all participants planning to attend ICANN75 in person must be pre-registered by 14 September 2022. More information and the full details on ICANN's health and safety measures for ICANN75 are available in the Health and Safety FAQ.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity once more to thank the community. We are grateful for the support in keeping the in-person meeting environment safe, and for the collaboration and effort shown by the community to support an equally meaningful experience for those who choose to participate remotely.

I look forward to seeing you in Kuala Lumpur.

ICANN75 will be held as a hybrid event 17–22 September 2022. The meeting schedule will be published on the ICANN event website on 29 August 2022.

Authors

Nick Tomasso