England v Scotland – UEFA Euro 2020 – Group D – Wembley Stadium
(Picture: PA Wire)The increase in coronavirus cases in Scotland is "very clearly" linked to Scotland fans travelling to London for the Euro 2020 match against England, a public health expert has said.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the spike in positive tests "coincides very much" with the incubation period of the virus after the match at Wembley on Friday June 18 which finished 0-0.
When asked if the Euros tournament was “acting as some kind of super-spreader”, Prof McKee said it was “very clearly” linked.
He said: "We can see very clearly in the Scottish data, because the increase coincides very much with what you would expect with the incubation period after the match but also the gender difference, because the cases, the increases seem much greater in men than in women.
"So I think when you put those two together it’s pretty clear that’s what’s been happening."
Thousands of Scotland fans travelled to the UK capital for the fixture in recent weeks despite warnings not to if they did not have a ticket.
Scottish Government figures published on Thursday show there were 4,234 positive tests over the past 24 hours - meaning the country registered more than 4,000 positive tests for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Data from Public Health Scotland published on Wednesday showed there were almost 2,000 people who attended a Euro 2020-related event while infected with the virus.
National clinical director Jason Leitch said travelling fans had undoubtedly contributed to Scotland’s recent spike and that the 2,000 figure was likely less than the true number.
Prof Leitch said: "To keep it in perspective, there were 32,000 positives since the Euros began.
"And 2,000 of those positives, in their Test and Protect interviews, say they were at something to do with the Euros.
"So that will be an underestimate, some won’t have told us that, some won’t have appreciated that was important."
Figures show 275 people were in hospital on Wednesday with recently confirmed Covid-19, up 40, with 16 patients in intensive care, down three.
So far, 3,816,251 people have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 2,722,725 have had their second in Scotland.
