New Delta strain believed to have emerged in 53,000 revellers at Cornwall, UK event

 Almost 5,000 infections have been linked to the Boardmasters festival in Cornwall, and with half a million music lovers at even larger events over the Bank Holiday, officials fear revellers are being hit by a new strain of the Delta variant

Festival goers attending the Boardmasters music and surfing festival in Cornwall, where almost 5,000 coronavirus cases have emerged (Photo: Boardmasters/PA Wire)

Fears are rising that a new strain of the Delta variant of Covid-19 has emerged among festival goers after an event attended by 53,000 revellers in Cornwall led to sharp spike in cases among younger people.

With this Bank Holiday weekend witnessing the highest number of music lovers flocking to festivals in 18 months, Public Health England (PHE) is understood to be investigating a possible new Delta strain that may have emerged from the Boardmasters festival in Newquay two weeks ago.

A senior official working on pandemic response in the south-west of England said many of the infections among young people in the region had been identified as coming directly from the festival in Newquay, which now has the highest rate of infection in England at more than 2,000 per 100,000 people.

The source told i: “It was traced because they can identify where it came from by genetic changes in the code.”

While it is being referred to among hospital staff in Devon and Cornwall as the “festival variant”, it is believed to be a new strain of Delta rather than an entirely new variant. Delta already has around a dozen different strains.

“It’s still the Delta variant but they can say it came from the festival, hence why it is being called the ‘festival variant’,” added the official.

The South-west peninsula now home to eight of the top ten areas in England with the highest rates of infection. The figures also show that around half of all infections in England are among those under 30, with the highest rate of infection now in the 10 to 19-year-old age bracket.

Cornwall Council has already linked almost 5,000 Covid infections to Boardmasters, with local health officials saying they “won’t know the complete picture for another few days.”

With around half a million people at music festivals such as those in Reading, Leeds and Let’s Rock Scotland in Edinburgh over the past few days, a senior Government scientific advisor has warned that such mass gatherings offer the virus a far greater opportunity to spread than any other outdoor event type, including at football matches.

Professor John Drury, a member of the Government’s Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) – which is a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (commonly known as Sage), called on the Government to mandate festival organisers to implement stronger Covid-safe measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Professor Drury said: “Different mass events have been found to be associated with very different rates of infection, and one factor explaining this is the crowd culture.

“The [Government’s] Events Research Programme noted that fan behaviour at the Euros was very different than at Wimbledon, for example. And we can expect greater physical intimacy– touching, close interaction, hugging, sharing drinks etc – at a music festival than at other large events.

“One of the key reasons that some people are engaging less with these basic protective behaviours is that the Government has basically said ‘it’s safe now, it’s fine, you’re not going to die’. The problem is of course that 100 people a day are dying. We need to support new norms around safety at the festivals.”

Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of Independent Sage, added: “The thing about mass gatherings is that people are right to think outside is safer than inside, but it’s the travelling back and forth to the mass gatherings that’s one of the main issues. If that mass gathering is for several days, like a music festival, then there’s also going to be a lot more contact between people, which give the virus more opportunity to spread.”

Andrew George, a Cornwall councillor and former Liberal Democrat MP, slammed the Government for “populist headline-chasing above being guided by the science”.

He added: “The fact is the more we have political leaders who prefer to chase favourable headlines, ignore the science and play to the Libertarian right the more we risk creating a more virulent vaccine resistant strain.”

Jayne Kirkham, who is also Cornwall councillor, said: “Many people that went to Boardmasters were 16-29. Very few were double vaccinated, and I don’t know any who went that did not get Covid.”

https://inews.co.uk/news/health/boardmasters-festival-new-delta-strain-cornwall-event-1172393