Leaked map shows postcode next to Cheltenham racecourse had county’s highest number of coronaviurus hospital admissions after 250,000 were allowed to pack into Festival
- The Cheltenham Festival was held at Prestbury Park between March 10-13
- More than 250,000 race fans packed the venue over the course of four days
- The postcode surrounding the largest train station is the second hotspot
- Both postcodes are responsible for a quarter of Gloucestershire’s infections
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A postcode next to Cheltenham Racecourse has reported a spike in Covid-19 infections following this spring’s National Hunt festival.
More than 250,000 attended the four-day festival in Prestbury Park which took place between March 10 and March 13.
The GL52 postcode, which covers the araG surrounding the racecourse reported the highest number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in Gloucestershire, according to data up to April 3.
More than 250,000 people attended the Chetlenham Races in March, ten days before the government announced it’s Covid-19 lockdown
The GL52 postcode area which includes Prestbury Park has reported the highest number of Covid-19 hospital admissions in England
New data has shown a cluster of Covid-19 patients needing hospitalisation in the area surrounding Cheltenham Racecourse which attracted 250,000 people through the turnstiles of Prestbury Park during the four-day festival which took place between March 10-13
The second highest area is GL51 which includes Cheltenham Spa Railway Station, used by many of the race fans attending the track.
The maps were leaked to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
According to Gloucestershire Live, the two postcodes are responsible for a quarter of all Covid-19 admissions in the county.
The race festival was held 10 days before Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the coronavirus lockdown and three days before the government recommended social distancing measures.
There was significant criticism of the decision to hold the meeting, which is the highlight of the National Hunt season because of the threat posed by Covid-19.
Cheltenham Racecourse defended the festival claiming they had been following government guidelines at the time.
Gloucestershire has the highest reported rate of Covid-19 in the South West according to Public Health England.
As well as holding the Cheltenham Festival, the government was criticised for allowing the Liverpool v Athletico Madrid Champions League match take place on the week beginning March 9.
Thousands of fans from the Spanish capital flew to Merseyside for the game, despite the rapidly increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Spain.
The government was also prepared to allow the Premier League to continue matches into mid-March.
Football authorities decided to suspend the competition on March 13 after the Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta and Cheslea striker Callum Hudson-Odoi contracted Covid-19.
Some 45 matches were due to take place in the Premier League and EFL ahead of the government’s eventual lockdown decision.
The second highest spike in Gloucestershire was in GL52 which includes Cheltenham Spa railway stations where many race fans attending the festival arrive in the area
Leading epidemiologist Dr Rowland Kao of the University of Edinbury.
He said the decision by football authorities to scrap matches over the weekend of March 13 could have saved lives.
He said: ‘There’s no guarantee with the number of infected people in the country at that time that somebody (with the infection) would have been there. But if someone had been there and been infectious, there was a potential for very large amounts of spread.
‘The problem you have in making that comparison is there’s no counterfactual. The people who got infected may have got infected anyway. But broadly speaking, the more things we would have done of that nature (banning mass gatherings), the better off we would be likely to have been.’
