‘Music festivals will lead to surge’

MUSIC festivals and schools returning will lead to a “significant surge” in Covid-19 infections, causing concerns for medics, an expert advising the UK Government has said.

A rise in cases as a result is “realistic” and will happen “despite best efforts” amid the spread of the dominant and more transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus, Professor Ravindra Gupta said.

His comments come as another expert said vaccines should prevent the “significant wave” of hospital admissions seen last autumn, but added there is uncertainty over how big any rise might be this time.

Asked if a surge in cases is inevitable amid summer festivals and the imminent return of schools and colleges, Prof Gupta told BBC Radio Four’s World at One: “Of course there is going to be an associated surge in cases, given that the young people in these events are largely going to be unvaccinated.

“That’s just something that is predictable and will happen, despite best efforts.

“We know that Delta is far more infectious, it ramps up very quickly. We know the lateral flow devices are not perfect. So we just have to be realistic and say that this is going to lead to a significant surge in infections.”

The member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), who said he was speaking in a personal capacity, noted that some of the government’s pilot events earlier in the year – which were concluded to have shown “no substantial outbreaks” – had taken place when the Delta variant was not dominant and community transmission was relatively low.