April 21 – Amid persistent accusations that the British government, unlike much of Europe, reacted far too late in trying to halt the spread of Covid-19, speculation over a possible link between positive cases in Liverpool and the club’s Champions League match with Atletico Madrid last month has intensified.
Some Covid-19 deaths in and around the city have been blamed on the March 11 fixture that was attended by more than 52,000 fans – including 3,000 from Madrid where a partial lockdown was already in force.
At that stage the UK’s policy was not to shut down mass gatherings but for the first time officially, the link has been given credence by the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean who said it warranted further investigation.
“It will be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in Liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in Spain,” she said at the UK government’s daily coronavirus news briefing on Monday.
Latest figures show that 246 people have died with coronavirus in Liverpool’s hospitals.
The city’s city council director of public health Matthew Ashton previously told the Guardian newspaper that the game should have been called off while the mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, said over the weekend that it was a “mistake” to allow thousands of Atletico fans to attend.
Madrid is one of Europe’s worst affected cities and Martinez-Almedia told Spanish radio station Onda Cero: “It didn’t make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time.”
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