The Oscars will have an indoor ceremony. We asked 2 experts whether its COVID-19 safety measures are enough.

• The Oscars will have an in-person ceremony on April 25.
• The ceremony will be split between 2 Los Angeles locations, with hubs in Paris and London.
• Guests need to quarantine and take COVID-19 tests days before the ceremony.

The Academy Awards are going ahead this year - pushed back from February 28 to April 25 - as the pandemic's first indoor awards show.

And the producers of the event, led by director Steven Soderbergh, are urging all nominees to attend in person.

In a Zoom call on Tuesday morning, Soderbergh told nominees that Zoom would be an option only for those in London and Paris.

For everyone else, Soderbergh said, producers and in-house COVID-19 consultants believe they have designed a safe plan to prevent the virus's spread at the ceremony.

The academy has recruited Erin Bromage, an infectious-disease specialist from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, as an in-house COVID-19 consultant. Bromage told nominees in Tuesday's call that there will be certain rules for Los Angeles residents and different rules for everyone else. They have also "built a state-of-the-art testing facility just for the Academy Awards," Bromage said.

Now that the safety protocols have been made public, Insider asked two health experts whether they would feel comfortable attending an event like the Oscars with these measures in place.

People who live in LA must quarantine for five days and take two COVID tests

Expert verdict: That's OK, depending on when they test and what tests they use. A seven-day quarantine is recommended.

The academy has not said when guests must take their tests. According to Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an assistant professor in the college of medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, guests should be tested four or five days into quarantine.

"If I was exposed yesterday, and then on day five of quarantine, I get tested, it's more likely that I'll have a positive test," she said.

Guests should quarantine for seven days to be on the safer side, Kuppalli told Insider.

It's unclear whether the multiple tests required in quarantine will be PCR or rapid tests, or if attendees will have both.

PCR tests are considered the gold standard for detecting infection - studies suggest that PCR tests are accurate 71 to 98% of the time. It's harder to gauge that accuracy of rapid tests, given the numerous brands, but a systematic study found that among people with COVID-19, these tests caught the infection in 72% of people with symptoms and 58% of people without symptoms.

Nominees from outside the US will have 10-day quarantines and three COVID-19 tests

Expert verdict: That's a bad idea. Everyone should have the same quarantine period.

Kuppalli said she doesn't understand why the Oscars are requiring international travelers to quarantine for five more days, saying the exposure risk is the same once a person is isolated.

"I would think that if you're traveling, you're at the same risk if you've been out and about in Los Angeles," she said.

But this rule mirrors California's travel advisory, which requires international travelers to quarantine for 10 days.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend quarantining for 10 days after COVID-19 exposure and to monitor symptoms for 14 days.

Whether guests are traveling internationally or from within Los Angeles, Kuppalli said they should isolate themselves for seven days before the Oscars.

In general, quarantine is a smart safety measure.

"Decreasing a person's circle of contacts by putting them through a quarantine period decreases the risk if they get exposed to COVID," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease expert at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

Multiple tests are better than one, Adalja said, in order to reduce risk further.

No additional ticket requests will be granted

Expert verdict: Smart idea

Before the pandemic, Oscar nominees could request extra tickets for family or friends. But to keep the crowd thin, the academy isn't allowing additional guests.

Kuppalli said this is a good safety measure. "You want to minimize the number of people as much as possible," she said.

Adalja agreed.

"We know that decrease in capacity will decrease the chance that someone brings COVID-19 there," he said.

No studio or personal representatives are allowed

Expert verdict: Smart idea

In the same spirit of crowd control, the Oscars aren't allowing the typical celebrity entourage to join the ceremony. Experts say this is a good measure.

"You want less people to be around, less people that potentially could infect people, less people that could get infected," Kuppalli said.

Guests should bring a mask but may not be told to wear them onstage

Expert verdict: Masks should be mandated

Kuppalli hopes that, along with minimizing the number of people in the room, guests will be physically distanced and wearing masks.

Nominees have been told to bring masks, but it's unclear whether they'll have to wear them onstage.

During Tuesday's meeting, one nominee asked whether they would have to wear a mask onstage to accept their award and give their speech. Soderbergh replied: "Bring a mask. It's still in play. And as soon as we know more, we will tell you. It's that fluid."

The Oscars will be split into two LA locations, with international 'Zoom hubs'

Expert verdict: Smart idea

The Oscars have been held at the famed Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) since 2002. This year, the ceremony will be split between two locations: the Dolby Theater and Union Station.

The ceremony will take place indoors, as usual, though with a greatly reduced capacity.

Kuppalli said splitting the ceremony between two venues is a good idea, but the locations should have proper ventilation, and people need to be spaced out.

European "hubs," will also be set up in London and Paris to help lower travel requirements for European nominees.

Kuppalli said these hubs are a good idea, especially because France announced a new lockdown amid rising COVID-19 cases.

"We don't want people unnecessarily traveling overseas, and I don't think that the Oscars are necessary travel," she said.

Nominees will be 'rotated' in outdoor courtyards

Expert verdict: Smart idea

Nominees attending the Union Station event will "experience an Oscars unlike any other," the Hollywood Reporter wrote, as attendees will be in and out of two courtyards throughout the ceremony. Soderbergh told nominees on the Zoom call that they "will be rotated throughout the evening so we don't exceed the limit in the main road," that leads to the entrance.

It's unclear how many people will be attending.

"Anything that allows people to social distance more is going to decrease the risk of COVID," Adalja said.

Overall verdict

The Academy Award producers are taking some smart precautions, but there are too many unknowns

The experts we spoke to thought required quarantining, mask-wearing, and thinning out of the crowd were smart ideas.

Nonetheless, some safety precautions are unclear, like what kind of tests attendees will be getting during quarantine, and whether the ceremony spaces are properly ventilated. It's also unclear whether there will be separate rules for fully vaccinated guests and partially or unvaccinated guests.