Foreigner Hosted Pop-Up COVID Vaccine Clinic Outside Its Nashville Concert

Foreigner is doing its part to encourage vaccination to fight the COVID-19 pandemic while it moves ahead with its first tour in over a year.

The band has joined forces with the Ad Council's 'It's Up To You' vaccine education program. Lead singer Kelly Hansen discussed the life-saving medicine with the chair of Nashville's COVID task force, Dr. Alex Jahangir, ahead of Foreigner's concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Music City last night (August 18).

"I feel that there are a lot of unaddressed concerns from a lot of the public around vaccinations," Hansen said. "I understand and believe that it's everyone's individual choice whether to get vaccinated or not, but I think that if you are aware of and believe and agree with the information that you hear today that you would wanna be vaccinated."

He added that unvaccinated peopler were urged to get vaccinated before the Nashville show, however the choice is "completely up to them."

Foreigner has not been requiring fans to be masked or fully-vaccinated to attend its tour, but the band has asked people to take the utmost precautions. In a statement Monday, Foreigner said it has implemented the "tightest Covid safeguards" for band and crew to give the tour the best chance of making all its scheduled stops.

"This isn't a demand, we are just trying to do all we can to stay on the road and be healthy," Foreigner said of masks in the statement. "Many tours are having to cancel shows due to infections which spread quickly in these tight bubbles."

Last Friday, Live Nation Entertainment announced that it would require proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test for all artists, crew and ticketholders at its events, starting in early-October.

A day earlier, AEG Presents announced that it would require proof of vaccination for entry into its venues and events.

COVID-19 cases around the United States have surged this summer, driven by new variants of the novel coronavirus. The rate of hospitalizations nationwide among people 50 years old and younger is at an all-time high because of the virus.

Vaccines have proven safe and effective in reducing the likelihood of COVID-19 infection and in mitigating severe symptoms of the virus that can lead to hospitalization and death.

As of this week, there are 136 million fully-vaccinated people in the U.S. Since January 1 of this year, there have been more than 16.5 million total cases of COVID in the U.S. About 193,204 of those cases — just over 1 percent — have been reported in fully-vaccinated people.