‘New’ Tactics From Boris, Appear To Resemble The Previous Tactics
Plan A, or Plan B – Spectators will need to show proof of double vaccination or a negative test to attend sporting events with crowds of more than 10,000 people in England as the Prime Minister reveals a return to the previously considered tactic to attempt to reduce the spread of the latest Omicron variant. The rules will come into effect from Wednesday, December 15th. The requirement has already been in place in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, for all events in excess of 10,000 people.
The rules were announced on Wednesday as part of the Covid 'plan B' measures in England with the Covid pass will also be needed for any unseated indoor venue with more than 500 people attending and any unseated outdoor venue with more than 4,000 people attending, in a bitter blow to the hospitality industry in the run-up to Christmas.
The new rules will affect all 17 Premier League games scheduled between December 15th and 19th, with only 3 teams who all play on Tuesday, the only teams not to have a home game in this time. A Covid pass will also be required at all 10 Championship games in England, as well as seven of the 12 League One games and six of the 12 League Two games next week. All four European Champions Cup rugby matches and all three European Challenge Cup ties taking place in England next week will also be affected.
It will no doubt cause concern amongst fans, and potential concern amongst some clubs, who, despite going to every effort to ensure Covid safety and abiding by the protocols, may struggle with the manpower and stewarding to control the queuing at such checkpoints. Much of the concerns are due to fans arriving en-masse and close to kick-off, which tends to be very prevalent amongst away fans, where additional searches often already take place already.
Premier League clubs have conducted some random spot checks on fans this season, with Brighton, Chelsea and Tottenham among those to make Covid passes mandatory. However, from our own experiences we know this hasn’t extended to away fans at any of these clubs. The infrequency of checks is understandable at this point, with some clubs experiencing enough issues particularly in the digital age, causing large queues at entrances. It will be interesting to see how these mandatory checks are enforced, as the government quickly shelved these plans when the rates of infection temporarily began to fall in September.
The Prime Minister confirmed the pass would still be available to people who had received two doses of a vaccine against Covid-19 but the government would "keep this under review" as the booster programme was extended. A negative lateral flow test would also be sufficient to obtain a Covid pass. The new restrictions are designed to curb a rise in cases and mitigate the risk posed by the newly arrived Omicron variant, which appears to be more easily transmissible than other coronavirus strains, whilst helping to ensure events and venues remain open at full capacity while giving attendees confidence that those around them have done the responsible thing to minimise risk to others.
In spite of the link between mass events in outdoor stadia and the spread of coronavirus appearing to be extremely low, facemasks remain on an advisory level on concourses, whereby the mixing indoor of numerous people would be prevalent. The legal requirement to wear face masks will be extended to most public indoor venues from Friday, but this does not extend to stadia and is rarely enforced in most places. However, there were exceptions when wearing a mask was not considered practical, such as when eating, drinking, exercising or singing (which is prevalent in most stadia at events).
We definitely do need to be careful and consider how best to address rising numbers of infections, and it is indeed true that action has to be taken proactively. However, is this the right tactic; will random checks remain instead of mandatory checking of every individual; or will we find ourselves back within a situation of reduced capacities once more!?
