Norman Reedus explains the new Walking Dead pandemic precautions

The Walking Dead is taking COVID-19 precautions to the next level. At least one of the measures is “kind of embarrassing” for Norman Reedus (Daryl).

The Walking Dead is back in production amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but to ensure things go as smooth and safely as possible, they’re taking things to the next level. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly’s Sirius XM channel, EW Live, Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) revealed that cast and crew members now wear tracers so everyone can tell how far away they are from someone else at all times.

Now that’s taking social distancing seriously. “We wear these little tracers in our clothes that will tell us how long we spend in proximity to another tracer,” Reedus explained. They tracers also tell you how long you’ve been another person with a tracer.

That actually sounds pretty useful. Can we get in on that?

“We’re being super safe,” Reedus continued. “There’s a ton of rules now. Everybody’s masked up or has shields on. I have a big scar on my face so that this mask doesn’t work, so I wear the shield everybody else wears masks. They take our temperature right off the bat. We get tested three times a week. We do the rapid testing.”

All of this is great — with CDC guidelines changing all the time, it sounds like The Walking Dead team is staying ahead of the curve — although it does result in some “kind of embarrassing” situations:

"I’ll show up on set and they’ll be like ‘Actor on set!’ And then the people part like Moses and the sea. And I’m like, “Excuse me, coming through.’ It’s embarrassing."

I’m sure there are some people who would enjoy that kind of attention, although I see what he means.

All of these precautions have let to a change of mood on set, where cast and crew are used to operating like a tight-knit family. “We like to hug, we like to high-five, we like to shake each other,” Reedus said. “We’re with that group. So to keep us all separated, it’s different. Granted we’re getting used to it, but there are no divas on this set. Now everyone’s away from each other and everyone’s got these masks on you and you can’t see people’s smile, so it’s kind of a different vibe.”

And it’s like that across all movie and television sets. Things that were so simple before have become difficult tasks that have to be approached in the safest way possible. And it’s especially difficult for a stunt-heavy show like The Walking Dead.

But they’re trying still, which is commendable. We’ll see the group back on our screens for six extra episodes of season 10 come early next year.

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