GLASGOW should not be put back into Level 3 restrictions if the city’s fan zone causes a spike in cases, a trade body has said.
Proposals are yet to be given final approval – a decision is expected from the Scottish Government this week – for the events during the European Championship this month which could see up to 6000 people per day flock to Glasgow Green, with maximum capacity expected to be reached during Scotland matches.
But Stephen Montgomery, a spokesperson for the Scottish Hospitality Group, said the rest of Glasgow’s hospitality industry, which this weekend was allowed to serve alcohol indoors, should not face heavier restrictions if the events cause a spike in cases.
“As far as we’re concerned, risk versus risk still equals risk,” he said.
“We always were told that alcohol was one of the reasons why we weren’t allowed to open up inside and serve alcohol, because people’s inhibitions would go. But why are they allowing alcohol at the fan zone?
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“We were told way back at the beginning of May by Glasgow City Council that there will be no alcohol at the fan zone, and now we’re having it. I think it’s an absolute slap to the hospitality sector within Glasgow.”
Speaking to Good Morning Scotland yesterday, Montgomery added: “Hospitality in Glasgow cannot be forced back into a Level 3 situation after this, because Glasgow didn’t ask for this.”
The decision to set up a fan zone has been controversial in recent weeks, particularly given the city’s recent struggles with Covid-19 cases, which forced Glasgow to stay in Level 3 restrictions longer than the rest of the country, only seeing rules relaxed on Saturday.
The latest figures show the Glasgow City region had 990 cases over the past seven days and Scotland’s fifth highest seven-day positive rate per 100,000 of the population.
Across the country, 641 coronavirus cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, but no new deaths.
Attendees at the fan zone are being encouraged to test themselves before going, but a negative result will not be required before entry is granted.
“We’ve seen in Liverpool in the trial events that everyone was tested before they went in and everyone was tested after they finished,” Montgomery said.
“We’re not seeing that in Glasgow Green, people are coming in without testing.
“I think [Professor Linda Bauld] said this earlier on in the weekend, that she was concerned about it, I think if she’s concerned about it, everybody should be concerned about it.”
The professor of public health from the University of Edinburgh told the BBC’s Sunday Show she was “worried” about the idea.
The Scottish Conservatives said there had been “mixed messaging” over the fan zone.
The party’s shadow finance and economy secretary, Liz Smith MSP, said: “Businesses are understandably angry that they are facing heavy restrictions while large gatherings have been planned without extensive testing arrangements in place.
“SNP ministers must clarify how this fan zone will operate safely and start working with businesses to ensure that guidance is enforceable and sensible.”
Earlier in the programme, Dr Deepti Gurdasani said the Delta variant, which was first identified in India, was two and a half times more likely to result in hospital admissions, as she warned a double dose of the coronavirus vaccine is needed to effectively repel the burgeoning strain – which she said was 40% more transmissible than the previous Kent variant.
“Because of those three features, we could have quite damaging consequences if we let cases go out of control at this point in time,” she said.
Meanwhile, the chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Devi Sridhar, has voiced her concerns over large groups of unvaccinated children going back to school and has said anyone over the age of 12 should get vaccinated.
She told Good Morning Britain: “Given that we know children can transmit, where we are going to see problems going forward is not going to be in care homes, it’s not going to be in hospitals, it’s going to be in schools, because this is where you’re going to see large groups of unvaccinated kids together, and we are going to have outbreaks.”
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