Latitude festival-goers test positive for coronavirus

Up to 20 people in Suffolk have tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the Latitude Festival, the county's director of public health said.

The four-day festival at Henham Park, near Southwold, was the first major event to be held following the lifting of most Covid restrictions in England.

It had a daily capacity of 40,000, made up of campers and day-ticket holders.

The government said it was too early to get a full picture of the impact the four-day event has had.

The music and arts festival, held over the weekend of 22-25 July, was part of the government event research programme (ERP).

Headliners included Wolf Alice, The Chemical Brothers, Bastille and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Ticket holders were told to bring either proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours before arriving at the festival, or proof of full vaccination.

Jess, 18, from Norwich, went to the festival with a group of friends on Sunday but was "pinged" on Monday and told to isolate for 10 days after one of them tested positive.

She said she personally knew between 15 and 20 people who had so far tested positive after attending Latitude.

"I think we all knew it was a risk," she said.

Her symptoms had so far been relatively mild, she said, adding that, while self-isolating was boring, she did not regret attending.

"It was something we had all been looking forward to for such a long time after it was cancelled last year," she said.

"It's not great to have Covid, but I think it was worth it to be with my friends after a tough Year 13 at school."

Stuart Keeble, director of public health told Suffolk County Council's local outbreak engagement board meeting that 300-400 cases among festival-goers would not be above the expected level, reported the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"From our local data, we are picking up 14 or 20 cases but obviously these people who have gone to Latitude will be all over the country and that's part of the event research programme to try to piece together the impact of it," he said.

"The thing I would say is you have got 40,000 people there, so if you look at the background rates of Covid in the population, which is about 1.4%, we would expect to see about 300 or 400 cases in that population over time, so it is quite possible the cases we are potentially hearing about are ones we would have seen in the population anyway."

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it was too early for Latitude results to be fully collated.

It said the results would go into the next phased report of the research programme.

The BBC asked Norfolk County Council if it was aware of any Latitude-related Covid cases in its area, but a spokesman said it would not be commenting for the time being.

Other events that formed part of the ERP included the Euro 2020 semi-final and final at Wembley and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit, both held ahead of 19 July.

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