Pubs and restaurants are not Covid hotspots, public health officials say

Hospitality venues are not hotspots for coronavirus transmission, according to public health officials.

Pubs, bars and restaurants don’t pose a ‘terribly big risk’ when it comes to transmission of the virus, a group of experts have told Parliament. 

Richard Harling, the director of health and care at Staffordshire County Council, and Greg Fell, the director of public health at Sheffield County Council, made the statements about hospitality when speaking to Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee this week.

The pair, alongside the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, were giving evidence while talking about the NHS Test and Trace system.

Addressing MPs, Mr Fell said hospitality was ‘nowhere near the top of his risk radar’, while Sir Patrick added there was ‘no hard evidence’ to prove the 10pm curfew reduced transmission rates.

According to them, the largest area for infection continues to be within and between households, although hospitality has seen the strictest restrictions throughout the various lockdowns and tiers.

Mr Harling said: “Back in the summer and autumn, once you put transmission between household members aside, the next most important one was transmission between different households.

“Hospitality did feature but much lower down the list.

“At the moment with hospitality closed, our main one now is other businesses, other workplaces.”

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Mr Fell added: “Most of the transmission events are households, within households, or household to household transmission.

“Hospitality doesn’t crop up as a terribly big risk on our risk radar. Certainly when we look at the common exposure dataset, hospitality certainly isn’t a huge risk.

“There will have been transmission in hospitality, but its certainly nowhere near the top of my risk radar.”

The news comes as Boris Johnson is preparing to reveal his roadmap out of lockdown, which will reportedly be announced during the week of February 22nd.

According to reports, the roadmap out of restrictions will consist of a three-stage gradual reopening, starting with schools and followed by non-essential retail, with hospitality last.

The plan would see pubs and restaurants opening in May, with retail reopening in April and schools potentially opening on March 8th.