Huge spike in coronavirus hospital admissions after Cheltenham Festival

Calls are being made for an inquiry into whether the horse racing event should have gone ahead.

Leaked data has revealed a high concentration of coronavirus hospitalisations in area next to Cheltehnaham Racecourse.

The map seen by GloucestershireLive shows there were 27 confirmed admissions in the GL52 postcode since April 3. The town has become known as a Covid-19 hotspot since the pandemic broke out.

It comes after organisers of the Cheltenham Festival defended the decision to go ahead with the event attended by 250,000 people between March 10 and March 13, finishing three days before the Government announced social distancing measures. The day before the started the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said there was ‘no rationale’ to postponing events.

The leaked OS data map shows GL52 had the highest number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in Gloucestershire, followed by GL51, which houses Cheltenham Spa Railway Station. According to Government data there have been 972 cases of coronavirus in Gloucesteshire and 147 deaths.

There are now calls for an inquiry into whether the horse racing event should have gone ahead despite the growing number of UK coronavirus cases.

The south-west region’s former Public Health director Professor Gabriel Scally said: I think it’s very tempting to link it to the Cheltenham Festival.

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‘Really from a health point of view [it] should have been stopped in advance.’

The Jockey Club says it had followed public health advice and rolled out a number of extra hygiene measures for the festival, including additional hand washing stations.

Defending his decision not to cancel sporting events earlier, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said: ‘The risk at mass gatherings was no greater or less than it would have been in pubs or restaurants, and the advice at that point was that we did not need to ban mass gatherings.’

A Government spokesperson said the organisers were ‘operating within clear Public Health England guidance at the time’.

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