Public Health Scotland to publish full details of impact of football travel on Covid cases

Public Health Scotland is to publish details of the full impact of fans who travelled to London to watch Scotland play in the Euros on coronavirus cases.

Speaking at Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that a full analysis was being done by the health authority as to where the virus was being spread, with the results due to be published in coming days.

She said: “We were very explicit in saying to fans who didn't have tickets for Wembley, not to travel. We can’t physically stop every person travelling and significant numbers of people did travel and I think there is an association between that and some of the cases we’ve seen.

Fans watch the England v Scotland UEFA Euro 2020 match at Vinegar Yard, London. Picture: PA

"Public Health Scotland is doing more of an analysis of this and and we will publish some more detail on that in the coming days.”

She said the analysis would look widely at where people had been in the time when they contracted coronavirus. Ms Sturgeon said she expected the data to show that some cases had been contracted by people gathering indoors to watch football matches together.

The First Minister added: “Anecdotally, it’s the case that in terms of travel and people gathering indoors to watch football, we are seeing some association between that and cases. That may give us a more complete picture.

"It’s not the football that’s the factor, it’s when people come together in enclosed spaces.”

Cases in Scotland have risen sharply in recent weeks, with some areas of the country among the highest in the UK.

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