Tartan Army’s own goal as infection rates hit a new high
THE Tartan Army has been blamed for a rise in Covid cases after fans returned from Scotland’s Euros clash with England in London.
Some 20,000 are estimated to have made the journey across the Border to watch the Wembley match – with packed trains and coaches heading south despite warnings that those without tickets should stay at home.
There were huge gatherings in Leicester Square and Hyde Park in the run-up to the 0-0 draw.
Scottish Government officials have now said they are ‘seeing positive cases’ among people who travelled on the coaches to and from the UK capital.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran has written to coach passengers urging them to get tested.
The number of new cases in Scotland has soared since last month because of the highly-infectious Delta variant.
Two-thirds of these cases are in men, suggesting that Covid19 may have spread between fans socialising in bars and homes to watch matches.
Public Health Scotland figures for June 22 showed 3,120 new infections – 2,015 among men and 1,105 in women.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We had previously advised that fans without tickets should not travel to London. We are now seeing positive cases in people who were on coach trips to and from London last weekend and we’d recommend everyone who was there take up the offer of Covid testing.
‘A number of NHS Boards are monitoring this issue, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran, who have written to people in their health board area who were on a recent coach trip.
‘The board have taken this action to alert them to the fact that a fellow passenger has tested positive for Covid-19 and to advise them to get a test as a precaution.’
Elvira Garcia, consultant in public health medicine with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said that a ‘contact tracing exercise’ was being carried out relating to trips to and from London made last weekend.
She said the board had written to individuals who were on these trips advising them to get tested ‘as a precaution’.
Professor Stephen Reicher, an expert on behavioural psychology at the University of St Andrews and an adviser to both the Scottish and UK governments, has suggested that men meeting up to watch Euro 2020 matches is behind the rise in cases in Scotland.
He said men and women had previously been getting infected at the same rate, but the data changed this week.
The figures then showed that men under the age of 45 were about three times more likely to get infected.
He told the BBC: ‘We can’t be sure why that is, but the obvious explanation is that people were getting together for the football and not taking precautions.’
Scotland’s National Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch, said he did not believe that the football was directly to blame but expressed concern about large gatherings of fans.
Asked about the rise in case rates among young men he told the BBC: ‘It’s socialising. It’s mainly indoor socialising, not outdoor socialising.’
Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, has refused to blame the Tartan Army for the increase in positive tests.
However, she suggested events such as the Euros would see
‘Advised fans should not travel’
‘Other people’s homes’
people gathering in homes and mixing more. She said the public ‘seems to think that the football is to blame, and I don’t think we should reach that conclusion’.
She added: ‘What I would say is that there’s a lot of activities that go along with these kinds of events, going into other people’s homes, etc, mixing with lots of different people, not necessarily associated with the fan zone or the matches.’
But she admitted: ‘There’s something that’s happened over the last few days and it really needs investigating.
‘I’m sure we’ll be hearing more of that from public health colleagues in the days to come.’