Supporters going to Glasgow Zone urged to take Covid tests Green Fan beforehand
Supporters heading into Glasgow’s Euro 2020 fanzone have been urged to take a coronavirus test before going – as warnings came that any link to a rise in cases could see the area shut down.
Professor Jason Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director, said "there will have to be a reverse gear" if clusters of virus cases are linked to the fan zone.
The fan zone in Glasgow Green, which opened last night, will see up to 6,000 people per day gather to watch matches for the duration of the tournament.
Euro 2020 is the first the Scotland men's team have qualified for in more than two decades.
Speaking to the BBC'S Good Morning Scotland radio programme on Friday, Prof Leitch said the fan zone is a "gateway event" as part of the move out of lockdown.
He said: "I think they've done agoodjob.it'snotzerorisk,the fan zone cannot be zero risk.
"The only way to take away all of the risk of Covid is to lock the city down, not let any crowds in the fan zone or the stadium.
"That's not what I think the pandemic stage we're at suggests."
He said gaining entry to the fan zone will not require evidence of vaccination or a recent negative test, however testing is "very, very recommended".
Making the tests mandatory could lead to people "gaming" or cheating the system, he said, arguing persuasion is a better way forward.
Prof Leitch said: "We're trying to see if we can mail (tests) out to some of the people who will have tickets.
"In the meantime there will be a testing centre at the fan zone if you haven't managed to do it.
"But please, please, please do it before you go."
Officials from several organisations involved in the fan zonemetonthursday,hesaid, and a group of public health advisers will be monitoring data from the site.
Prof Leitch said: "We said in the meeting yesterday, all of us agreed - it's not a Scottish Government thing, it's a partner thing - that if it goes badly there will have to be a reverse gear."
It came as Professor Linda Bauld, chair of public health at Edinburgh University, said Glasgow's Euro 2020 fan zone was a "pretty low-risk" event - but what comes with it may cause problems.
Professor Bauld said the event itself represents very little risk from Covid-19. But she said related issues such as increased travel on public transport could be problematic.
And she admitted the fan zone was "bad timing", given that other members of the public can't attend their children's nursery graduation or have more than 50 people at a wedding or funeral in Glasgow.
The fan zone is expected to be packed out on Monday when Scotland play their first game of the tournament – and their first match at a major event in more than two decades.
Prof Bauld said: "The event itself outside is pretty low risk. It's the stuff that goes along with it - the public transport, the gathering inside if people want to etc."
She also encouraged people to make sure they took a covid test before travelling to the fan zone.
"People, just order these lateral flow tests," she said. "We've been asked to do it, so let's just do it."
The latest figures show Glasgow City had 198 cases of the virus newly reported on Friday, the highest in Scotland. Across Scotland, 1,104 cases were recorded in the last 24 hours - the highest since midfebruary - but no deaths.
It means the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic stands at 244,714 with 7,679 deaths under the daily measure.
Ahead of Scotland’s opening game, a spokesman for the Tartan Army said fans were just ‘welcoming in the new normal’ of Scotland appearing at the tournament.
After being visited by a photographer from the New York Times at his house in Ayr, Hamish Husband, the Tartan Army’s spokesman, has been left in disbelief as he adjusts to Scotland’s Euro 2020 appearance.
Mr Husband who is a key spokesperson for the Scotland national football team’s fan group said: “I won’t believe it till I’m in the stadium and the teams come out as it’s been 23 years and I’ve had many heartaches since then.
"I’ve been to the women's Euros and the Euros world cup so if they qualified this time I would have been following them as well so I’ve had heartache with the men and the women.
"I’m welcoming the new normal, however, and that is Scotland actually winning at tournaments again.
“One of my friends also did Der Spiegel the German Magazine so there’s a worldwide demand for the Tartan Army.”
Due to Covid, Mr Husband commented that the Euros is ‘not the same’ but agreed that Scotland’s involvement this year has captured the nation.
He added: “The whole thing has just been different.
“Maybe two months I wouldn’t have believed they
would have let fans in with rumours of it going to Germany and Russia.
"One of the disappointments is not having international fans visiting - the whole point of a tournament is having fans from all over Europe.”mr Husband is not planning to go to the fan zone but mentioned that friends of his who could not get tickets will be there to celebrate the games coming ‘hame’, as billboards across Glasgow emphasise. He said: "I would hope all Scots fans follow the guidelines so that it’s football that is leading us into the new normal.
"Hopefully there’s positivity for everybody that’s happening out of this.” Jokingly, he added: “Except for the Czechs, obviously.”