Covid: Music festivals and schools reopening risks ‘significant surge’ in infections, government adviser says

Professor Ravindra Gupta warns ‘of course there is going to be an associated surge in cases’

Festival goers at Latitude festival in Henham Park, Suffolk, last month (PA)

The return of music festivals and schools will lead to a “significant surge” of coronavirus cases, a scientific adviser to the government has predicted.

Professor Ravindra Gupta, who is a member of advisory group Nervtag, told BBC Radio 4 that it was “realistic” to expect such gatherings to result in an uptick in Covid-19 cases.

His comments came after reports that more than a thousand attendees of Latitude Festival, a government pilot scheme for big events, tested positive after the event.

Meanwhile, more than 4,000 Covid-19 cases are thought to be connected to Boardmasters, a music festival held in Cornwall earlier this month.

Asked if a surge in cases is inevitable, Professor Gupta said: “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.”

Professor Gupta also noted that some of the government’s large events pilots that returned “no substantial outbreaks” were carried out before the Delta variant took hold in the UK.

“I think if you did a large event now, and did the same study, you may find something different because, of course, the Delta variant is dominant at the moment,” he said.

Although coronavirus cases are rising across the majority of England, the current increase in cases has not yet been met with a similar increase in hospitalisations and deaths, likely because of the vaccination programme.

There is also typically a time lag between a rise in infections and hospitalisations because of how long it takes for a person to develop severe symptoms.

On 25 August, 35,847 lab-confirmed cases were recorded in the UK, as well as 149 further deaths.