For Rude Mechanical Orchestra, COVID-19 safety is a vital part of community care. Continuing to follow safety measures as a band and as individuals helps us to keep each other safe and makes our project more accessible to vulnerable community members. 

Our committee focused on COVID-19, accessibility, and disability justice developed guidelines that we follow at practices, gigs, and social events. The guidelines are organized around three tiers of safety measures based on COVID-19 levels in New York City.

Some overall guidelines apply across all the tiers:

• Stay home (and rest!) if you don’t feel well beyond your usual baseline.
• Always rapid test before an indoor practice or other indoor activity.
• Wear the highest-quality mask that is available to you: ideally, a N95/KN95 when you aren’t playing a wind instrument, or a mask tailored to your instrument when you are playing.
• Indoor gigs are rare for RMO; we will consider them on a case-by-case basis.
• Practices generally alternate between indoors and outdoors (weather allowing)*, as both practice types offer accessibility in different ways.
• We strongly encourage all members to stay up-to-date with annual COVID-19 vaccines, flu vaccines, and other common vaccines.
• If you test positive for COVID-19, wait until you no longer have symptoms and have tested negative on at least two rapid tests (48 hours apart or more) before returning to band events.
• We encourage organizations who invite us to consider COVID-19 safety, too, especially for indoor events and larger marches or actions.

*We define inclement weather as a temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), any kind of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.), and/or if any environmental hazards are present, such as an unhealthy air quality index due to wildfire smoke.

As of July 7, 2026, we are in the Green Tier.

Key:
✅: Required
👍: Recommended
❌: Not needed (but feel free to)

Guidelines	Green Tier	Yellow Tier	Red Tier
High-quality masking indoors	✅	✅	✅
Masks & bell covers at indoor practices	✅	✅	✅
Masks & bell covers at outdoor practices	❌	👍	✅
Masks & bell covers at outdoor gigs	❌	👍	✅
Rapid testing before indoor practices	✅	✅	✅
Rapid testing before outdoor practices	❌	👍	✅
Rapid testing before outdoor gigs	❌	👍	✅
Indoor gigs considered on case-by-case basis	✅	✅	✅

1. Green Tier
   • Metrics: Under 10 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week in NYC; test positivity for NY/NJ is under 5%; majority of city wastewater sites show low levels in the last 2-3 weeks (i.e. “low” or “moderate” on the state wastewater dashboard)
   • Actions: Outdoor gigs and rehearsals without masks, bell covers, or testing.
2. Yellow Tier
   • Metrics: 10-100 new cases per 100,000 in the last week in NYC; test positivity for is NY/NJ between 5% and 10%; majority of city wastewater sites show moderate levels in the last 2-3 weeks (i.e. “high <25%” or “high 25-50%” on the state wastewater dashboard)
   • Actions: Masks, bell covers, and rapid testing are optional for outdoor gigs; we might consider strongly recommending masks and COVID-19 rapid tests for larger gigs.
3. Red Tier
   • Metrics: 100+ new cases per 100,000 in the last week in NYC; test positivity for NY/NJ is above 10%; majority of city wastewater sites show high levels in the last 2-3 weeks (i.e. “high 50-75%” or “high 75-100%” on the state wastewater dashboard)
   • Actions: Masks (N95/KN95 or special wind instrument masks) and bell covers are required for gigs; wind players must take COVID-19 rapid tests within 12 hours of a winds gig and receive a negative result to attend.

We have free masks and rapid tests available for our members.

We are continuing to monitor COVID-19 research closely, and we will let you know when we have any further updates. In the meantime, stay safe, keep each other safe, and see you in the streets!

• If you would like us to play at your event, please fill out our gig request form.
• If you’d like to join the band, please fill out our new member form.