A number of revellers who partied at Glastonbury Festival have reported testing positive for coronavirus in the days following the event.
More than 200,000 people flocked through the gates of Worthy Farm and large crowds formed to see headliners Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar perform along with scores of other artists throughout the five-day event. With Covid restrictions having been lifted by the government early in the year, Glastonbury provided many people with their first opportunity to party in large crowds since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
But as thousands of bleary eyes festival-goers made their way home, many took to Twitter to report taking a rather unpleasant guest with them. Among them are The Times' science reporter and religious affairs correspondent Kaya Burgess, who tweeted: "I had a wonderful time at Glastonbury. Its magic is undimmed, reports Somerset Live.
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Though I brought home a rather unwelcome memento... Had avoided Covid for 2½ years. And all it took to catch it was cramming shoulder-to-shoulder into fields with 200,000 other people. Who'd have thought it."
Fellow festivalgoer Fiona M added: "#Glastonbury was one of the best…to be cautious as we see vulnerable people five out of 15 of us tested for Covid, 2+ve! Please test especially if seeing vulnerable people." Dawn Assaf tweeted: "After an amazing Glastonbury I’ve succumbed to round 2 of Covid. What a come down after an amazing weekend!"
No official figures detailing how many people have so far tested positive for Covid after attending Glastonbury Festival have been released. But there have been concerns that the return of many mass events to the summer social calendar could result in a major uptick in cases.
iNews reports that Covid cases across the country were up by more than 20 per cent in the week following the Platinum Jubilee as a number of public events and street parties led to it being dubbed a so-called "superspreader" event.
Glastonbury Festival's Covid policy
A Covid policy was posted on the official Glastonbury website in the run-up to last week's festival detailing a number of measures that it recommended that festivalgoers take.
It included telling anyone who had a respiratory infection to "try to stay at home" and recommended that people take face masks with them to Worthy Farm.
Anyone who tested positive for the virus while at the festival was urged to "try to isolate and avoid contact with other people". All of England's Covid restrictions, including the need to isolate after a positive test, were removed by the government in February.
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