New Delta Covid strain may have emerged from Boardmasters, official claims

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A senior official working on epidemiological response in the Southwest reportedly said what appears to be a new mutation in the Delta strain is being referred to as the ‘festival variant’ by hospital staff.

About 53,000 people attended the five-day Boardmasters Festival earlier this month (

Photo: PA)

A new Delta breed is believed to have emerged among the thousands of revelers at the Boardmasters Festival, it has been claimed.

The popular five-day musical event in Newquay attended by 53,000 revelers earlier this month, and was followed by a sharp rise in Covid cases among young people.

Cornwall Council said an estimated 4,700 people contracted the virus either from attending the festival or through contact with two people who did.

But there are concerns that more people have found out there but have not been officially tracked down yet, as the Mirror reported yesterday.

And now Public Health England is understood to be investigating a possible new strain of the highly transmissible variant that was first identified in India last year, according to an insider.

Did you catch Covid after attending a festival this summer? Let us know at [email protected]

An estimated 4,700 people have been arrested for Covid as a result of Boardmasters (

picture:

Getty Images)

The anonymous senior official working on epidemiological response in the Southwest told i newspaper that what appeared to be a new surge was being referred to as the ‘festival variant’ by hospital staff in Cornwall and Devon.

“It was traced back because they can identify its source through genetic changes in the code,” they explained.

He went on to say that it is believed to be a new breed of delta – which already has about a dozen forms – rather than an entirely new variant.

“It’s still the delta shape, but they can say it came from the festival, which is why it’s called the ‘festival shape”,” the official said.

Cornwall is now home to eight of the top 10 regions in England with the highest infection rates.

Festival-goers camp during the Boardmasters event (

picture:

Getty Images)

While the numbers also show that more than half of the infections currently in the country are among those under the age of 30.

The highest infection rate is now in the 10-19 age group.

Cornwall Council said it “would not know the full picture for a few more days”, in terms of the exact numbers of people who contracted the virus after Boardmasters.

Meanwhile, half a million people have gone to the likes of Reading, Leeds and Let’s Rock Scotland in Edinburgh in recent days.

Professor John Drury, of the Scientific Pandemic Insights on Government Behaviour Group, a subcommittee of Sage, called on Downing Street to mandate festival organizers to implement safer measures for the Covid virus.

A spokesperson for Vision Nine – the company behind Boardmasters – previously told The Mirror that it had “worked closely with experts” from Cornwall Council’s Public Health Service, departments of the wider Cornwall Council, NHS and emergency services “to put in place a variety of measures in order to manage Contagion risks in what is effectively a pop-up city of 50,000 residents and temporary visitors.”

“In addition to the advantage of perhaps the best well-ventilated venue in the country, we asked festival-goers to play their part in reducing the impact of potential infection by showing evidence of complete vaccination, negative lateral flow testing, or immunity from acquiring a virus before they can join us in the site “.

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