UK Test Events: Result in just 15 Positive cases of Covid

The UK Covid Events Research Programme (ERP) has been hailed a huge success as results show only 15 positive cases of Covid where more than 58,000 people attended.

Only four cases of Covid occurred across the entire 17 days of the World Snooker Championships, staged indoors at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.

Zero cases emerged from the Brits, even though the audience could mingle in boxes and at tables without masks.

Two cases were found among a 5,900 crowd at an outdoor music festival at Sefton Park, Liverpool, and none at all at the reduced-capacity football at Wembley Stadium, indicating that summer festivals, sporting events and entertainments held outdoors are very safe.

Nine cases were found among 6,000 revellers who packed into a ‘The First Dance’ hosted by nightclub promoter Circus in Liverpool over two days without masks. The relatively higher number of positive cases confirmed that clubbing is the toughest part of the night economy to bring back safely, but is not seen as so high as to rule out the reopening of venues.

There will be a second round of trials commissioned by the Government including even bigger crowds at major venues to deepen ministers’ understanding of how to manage events and audiences safely, including the possible role that so-called Covid Passports could play.