Events Industry: Coronavirus

(asked on 6th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Events Research Programme, what assessment he has made of the covid-19 viral load people who tested (a) negative before and (b) positive after an event were exposed to.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 12th July 2021

The risk of COVID-19 transmission at any event will depend on several biological, behavioural and environmental factors including the prevalence of disease at the time, venue design, extent and effectiveness of venue ventilation (including whether events are held indoors or outdoors), numbers and characteristics of attendees, type, nature and purpose of contact, and length of time spent close to others.

Details of the risk of COVID-19 transmission are available in the Events Research Programme: Phase I findings report which was published on Friday 25 June and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/events-research-programme-phase-i-findings

The ERP pilots demonstrated how risk mitigation measures could be put in place to reduce and manage the risks identified for events. Mitigation options include: communications, crowd and audience management strategies, face coverings and ventilation.

It is challenging to generate robust, generalisable evidence of the transmission risk associated with particular events from the first phase of the ERP, including those associated with the event. Phase I pilots were necessarily limited in scale, and took place during a period of low prevalence of the virus. Further, they were insufficient in scale, scope and study designs to generate any direct evidence based on transmission data. Therefore, evidence on case numbers should be treated with caution.

Our independently chaired Science Board agreed that we needed to run more events over multiple dates, in order to gather and generate stronger data that consolidates our evidence base. The third phase of the ERP is currently taking place and will continue to produce additional scientific research and evidence, as well as implementation considerations for government, event organisers, and consumers on reopening events safely with a greater number of attendees.

Public safety is our main priority, and we continue to work closely with the local authorities, DHSC, and PHE to closely monitor attendees. This includes monitoring any potential prevalence of COVID-19 as a result of the events. The Test and Trace team are working closely with the ERP on our pilot events to ensure that any attendee who tests positive for the virus is contacted, and understands the requirement to self-isolate.

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