Just 20 Latitude Festival attendees out of 40,000 have tested positive for COVID-19

Just 20 people have tested positive for COVID-19 following Latitude Festival last weekend, according to Suffolk’s director of public health.

The Henham Park festival, which took place over four days, was the first large-scale event to take place following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in England last Monday.

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Though it has been confirmed that 20 of the 40,000 attendees have since contracted the virus, the government has said that it is too early to get a clear idea of the full impact of the event.

Taking place as part of the government’s Event Research Programme, Latitude ran as a pilot event to examine the risk of transmission of COVID-19 and explore ways for people to attend events safely.

Accordingly, ticket holders were required to bring proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of arriving at the festival, or proof of having received two vaccines. Masks and social distancing were not enforced, however.

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Stuart Keeble, director of public health at Suffolk County Council, said: "From our local data, we are picking up 14 or 20 cases but obviously these people who have gone to Latitude will be all over the country and that's part of the event research programme to try to piece together the impact of it."

Other ERP events have included Leicestershire’s Download Festival in June and Liverpool's Circus in May.

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Headliners at Latitude included Wolf Alice, the Chemical Brothers and Bombay Bicycle Club, whilst Nabihah Iqbal, the KVB and TAAHLIAH took on some of the intimate stages.

[Via: BBC]

Safi Bugel is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter