Exclusive: Government proposals to save the 'crown jewels' of the summer sporting season include sending fans Covid tests with tickets Government is 'pushing hard' to get stadiums and venues open in time for Wimbledon and Euros football tournament in June By Lucy Fisher 12 February 2021 • 6:59pm A public notice board at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships complex in south west London, Britain, 29 June 2020. It would have been the opening day of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships today had it not been for the Covid-19 Pandemic. Plans to save the summer sporting season by sending fans Covid tests with tickets and conducting on-site temperature checks are being devised by officials, The Telegraph has learned. The Government is keen to prioritise opening up the “major set-piece events” to the public, including Wimbledon and the seven Wembley-based matches in the Euros football tournament, all of which are in June, it is understood. One Whitehall source said there was a “huge push to get stadiums and sports open”, adding: “Bread and games - very Boris.” The options being examined include posting lateral flow device tests to fans at home in advance of big sports events to certify them as Covid negative, using asymptomatic testing sites, and carrying out rapid on-site testing and temperature checks. Asking sports fans to isolate before events has been deemed commercially unviable, it is understood. A Government source insisted it was “very early days” and added: “Nobody in Government is making any promises about this. The roadmap is key, everybody needs to wait for that.” The Prime Minister is set to lay out the Government’s strategy for exiting lockdown on February 22. He has stressed his first priority is to reopen schools, which is expected to happen from March 8. Hospitality and retail are expected to follow in phased steps. A Downing Street source said on Friday night: “We’ll look at all of the different things that have been closed in the roadmap process to consider if we can open them safely.” Last summer Wimbledon was cancelled and the Euros were delayed, while a host of other major sports competitions and events were disrupted, after the coronavirus outbreak became a pandemic. Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, set up the Sports Technology and Innovation Group (Stig) last September to explore high-tech solutions to get fans back into venues. It has met regularly to discuss a host of measures to help turbo-charge the return of crowds, including on ticketing, travel to and from venues, and making venues Covid-secure. One source close to the talks said tennis had been highlighted in recent discussions as a priority and was linked to a potential plan to offer preferential treatment to those who have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Ministers have dismissed the idea of “vaccine passports” being used domestically, however, insisting they are discriminatory. The Government has vowed to offer all Britons over 50 and all adults with underlying health conditions a first dose of Covid vaccine by Spring. Scientists predict the mortality rate of the virus will fall by 99 per cent once these groups have been vaccinated. David Armstrong, chief executive of the Racecourse Association (RCA), said he expected sport to be given more time to prepare for the return of crowds when the lockdown is eased this time, compared with the lifting of measures in December. The executive, who has been in regular contact with Government during winter rescue package deliberations, added: "I think that any changes that are made will have a decent lead-in this time around. I don't think there's going to be the sort of announcement where restrictions will be lifted the next day." Mr Armstrong, who is a former chief executive at Wasps rugby club, said racing was also “looking at a number of passport solutions” to help crowds return safely. “A digital passport will capture both testing and vaccine information, but it will be some time before the integration to vaccine information will be available,” he said. “That's going to take a little while.” On Saturday Mr Dowden will appear at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London to meet doctors, nurses and volunteers supporting the vaccine rollout, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock will visit the Stoke Mandeville stadium, known as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement, which is being used as a vaccine centre.
I honestly don't want to sound like the "Euros Grinch" but I'm not sure how comfortably the optimism of this article sits alongside the reality of new arrivals to the UK being made to quarantine for 10 days at a cost of £1750 (payable by the individual) and the UK government only this week warning people not to book a summer holiday either abroad or in the UK. It could be that the measures suggested in the article are viable if attendance is restricted only to UK nationals? Obviously everyone needs to carry out their own individual risk assessment but personally if not vaccinated the measures proposed wouldn't be much of a re-assurance to me as the lateral flow tests aren't accurate enough to really be confident the person next to you doesn't actually have Covid-19, but I respect this is an individual choice. Temperature checks on the gate can cause the opposite problem in that they could exclude people who have a temperature for a reasonably benign non Covid-19 reason. I would not want to be the person who flies in from America having paid for Category 1 tickets, made to quarantine for 10 days at a cost of £1750 only to be refused admission at the gate because they had a high temperature due to some temporary state like dehydration or what have you.
Just to correct my own post above (as the forum won't let me edit it due to the time limit expiring) the £1750 quarantine fee only applies to people landing from 33 "red list countries" (of which the USA is not included, thankfully for many on here ) but there still is a blanket requirement to self-isolate for ten days upon arrival in the UK. Taken from gov.uk: " From 15 February onwards, everyone allowed to enter England from outside the Common Travel Area must: quarantine for 10 days take a coronavirus (COVID-19) test on day 2 and day 8 of quarantining When you arrive in England, you must travel directly to the place you’re staying and not leave until 10 days have passed. The quarantine period starts the day you arrive in England and ends 10 days after the day you arrived. This period is necessary because it can take up to 10 days for coronavirus symptoms to appear. If you’re travelling to England for less than 10 days, you will need to quarantine for the whole of your stay. You must travel directly to your place of quarantine when you arrive in England and directly from your place of quarantine to the port or airport when you leave. You should follow safer travel guidance and avoid public transport if possible. If you break the quarantine rules you may face a penalty of up to £10,000." Of course, in practical terms being made to pay London hotel prices for 10 days and paying a state imposed £1750 quarantine fee may actually amount to the same thing
Who can say? : https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/hotel-q...-countries-uk-arrivals-end-latest-news-867356 " Health Secretary Matt Hancock has refused to rule out extending the policy through the summer and into the autumn. This will depend on how effective the current vaccines are against variants of the virus such as the South African and Brazilian strains."
I found this on Linkedin jobs ads for Bilbao fromm euro2020 and it links to this https://www.rfef.es/ofertas-empleo It seems they keep this ugly format around europe, or they look for someone to cancelled ticket for Bilbao haha
I just got my first dose of the covid vaccine in NYC today, with the next dose scheduled for March 15. I’m very optimistic that the rollout will be in full throttle in the next three months, heading into the euros
i got my second dose of the vaccine today, not sure if i should go to this yet and take off my 5 weeks in the summer... i wanna see germany live.
You don't have to be ancient to qualify for the vaccine in New York. Half of the population currently qualify. The issue like everywhere is the supply / finding an open appointment. I'm seeing some muppets out there that choose not to be vaccinated though, which I guess will translate to less wait time for me.
30s, but I have a pre-existing condition. As Boca said, the issue is more getting an appointment. I got lucky and was able to score one on Monday.
Yeah, the mainstream media is now hung-up on the threat of these new variants even though the situation isn't all that bad in the countries that the variants are named after. Never once has the MSM mentioned that the cases and deaths are in steep decline. I'm actually curious to know what the reasons are for the decline, but hard to find answers because most news organizations can't even admit that there is a decline.
Yes, for example Switzerland seen their percentage of B117 rising weekly: "We estimate that the proportion of 501Y among all infections has reached 79% (74%-83%) in Geneva, 45% (32%-59%) in Bern, and 51% (43%-58%) in Zurich." Meanwhile: Denmark with the same: "In Denmark B.1.1.7 is now at 48% in week 6 (Initial data, 288/606 genomes). Development for the past weeks: 2, 4, 7, 13, 20, 31, 48%." Meanwhile: The source of the US Data: https://twitter.com/TheLawyerCraig The reason for the decline is seasonality (for all: seasonaility does not equal weather in a strict sense) combined with some communal immunity: US COV2 Update: 2/16/21- Reported Deaths lingering due to OH "finding" 4,000 deaths and dumping this past week- Detected Cases down 64.7% from peak- Pos% down 58.8% from peak. 1.6 pts from lowest ever- Hosps down 50.6% from peak- ICUs down 42.3% from peak; below Apr2020 pic.twitter.com/ZAhjCZbHAN— Hold2 (@Hold2LLC) February 16, 2021 (if you click on the link, you will see seasonality patterns)
After another fall, worldwide new cases are down 50.7% from the peak last month (11 January). Perhaps I am being naive, but I would have thought that a halving of global new COVID-19 cases would be a big news story. I’ve seen very little coverage of this however.
But how can it be seasonality when last year at this same time of the year cases were increasing exponentially across Western Europe and (2 weeks from now) in the U.S.? - the same places where they are in steep decline in 2021.
It is easy: Because this is when it first appeared. It was not present last winter so we could not tell how big would have been last winter. When the virus like this first appears it sweeps through no matter of season because people are all vulnerable to it (epidemic state) but when it becomes endemic (a big junk of people have been infected), the seasonal aspects more and more emphasized. Here are the normal seasonality charts for every coronovirus type: And here are the last 10 seasons of flu: And to be honest, I do not really remember that in March-April we locked down people and restrict them every year to "stop the spread" for the summer....
Don't know if there's much in this, full story is behind a paywall in the Sunday Times, but England are supposedly offering to hold the whole tournament. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/britain-euro-2020-host-vaccine-23538096
P.S. Story denied by another minister. https://www.eurosport.co.uk/footbal...k-could-host-the-euros_sto8142038/story.shtml
I expect Matt Hancock to take that stance as his department is health and his objective at the moment is basically to keep the virus under control, inviting fans from 24 nations (plus American friends from the forum ) here for a month to potentially spread new mutations of the virus flies in the face of that. The chap quoted as saying that fans could return to stadiums in May is the culture secretary, who's job it is to get sports back up and running - so we basically have two different departments of government with competing interests. Ultimately, neither of the above will have the final say, that responsibility basically lies with the chap in 10 Downing Street. Tomorrow's roadmap announcement should be interesting.
Yup, I'm pessimistic it will go ahead now with the slow run out of the vaccine in the EU, at least for spectators. I was as much looking forward to the travel as the football, trips to Newcastle and Manchester wouldn't appeal much.
Yeah, time is just flying by. Keep thinking we have lots of time / June is miles away. But suddenly just over 3 months remain. Not looking good for 50% full stadiums across 12 countries that's for sure.