(Credit: Mariinsky Theatre official website)

COVID-19 has struck the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Per the sources on the website Rosbalt.ru, over 50 members of the ballet and the orchestra fell sick as a result of the COVID-19 infection. Per the same sources, the number has more than doubled related to the previous day. The website reports that each day someone gets sick with the novel coronavirus.

According to the Rosbalt.ru, one 20-year member of the ballet troupe ended up on mechanical ventilation.

“We’re all in the state of panic, and we think that the theatre should be closed,” one of the employees of the Mariinsky Theatre told Rosbalt.ru.

Artists and the staff at the Mariinsky Theatre get regularly tested for COVID-19. First cases emerged a few weeks after the performances had restarted.

On the website of the Mariinsky Theatre, ballet performances have already been replaced by opera performances.