Health officials urge festival-goers in England to take Covid precautions
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Public health officials in England have urged restraint among festival-goers over the bank holiday weekend to prevent a stubbornly high Covid infection rate among young people fuelling a broader surge in cases.
More than half a million people are set to descend on at least eight sites across the country as part of England’s biggest festival weekend of the year.
Meanwhile, infections among adolescents and young adults in England remain near their highest level throughout the whole pandemic, and more than double the overall national rate. One in every 30 of 16 to 24-year-olds was infected with Covid-19 in the week to August 20, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The festivals, which include Leeds, Reading, Creamfields in Merseyside and All Points East in London, all require proof of vaccination or a recent negative lateral flow test result to enter, but most do not require social distancing or people to wear masks.
However, public health officials have still called for attendees to take extra precautions.
Susan Hopkins, the Covid-19 strategic response director at Public Health England, urged festival-goers to socialise outdoors as much as possible, test themselves regularly and wear a mask when travelling on public transport.
“It’s especially important to be cautious when you leave the festival and when you get home as you may well have caught Covid-19 while you’ve been away,” she added. “Try and avoid seeing older or more vulnerable relatives so that you don’t pass anything on.”
The ONS infection survey, which monitors both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases, reported on Friday that one in 70 people in England were infected with Covid-19 in the week ending August 20, up from one in 80 the week before.
Meanwhile, the reproduction rate, or R value, of the virus in England has edged up to between 1 and 1.1, which means the epidemic is probably in a growth phase and for every 10 people infected they are likely to pass it on to between 10 and 11 others.
Meradin Peachey, public health director for Berkshire West, who’s been involved with preparations for Reading festival, admitted that “there will inevitably be some spreading” of the virus among the more than 100,000 attendees.
“We can’t stop Covid spreading because rates are so high among young people, and most of those attending are 18 or younger,” she told the Financial Times. “We are relying on people being sensible, honest and doing the right thing.”
But Peachey stressed local hospital admission rates remained low, adding that any uptick in cases should not result in people becoming “really sick” because of high vaccine coverage among older groups.
However, Professor Christina Pagel, a mathematician and member of the Independent Sage group of science advisers, said a big surge in infections “ran the risk” of feeding through into older groups.
“Being outside in crowded groups, especially when singing, is no protection against the Delta variant, so we’d expect to see superspreader events,” she said. “If the spike is large enough that could spill into older groups and then we might see a surge in hospital admissions among the unvaccinated or vulnerable.”
Iain Buchan, a professor of public health at Liverpool university who served as principal investigator for the first stage of the government’s events research programme, said festival organisers could do more to implement “hassle-free” mitigations.
“It would be sensible to introduce daily testing for all attendees, and easy access to refunds for those who are feeling unwell and don’t go to the event,” said Buchan. “These measures need to become the norm.”