April 24 – The mayor of Liverpool City Region has called for an investigation into the Champions League clash between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid as debate over a possible link between positive Covid-19 cases in the city and last month’s fixture intensifies.
Some Covid-19 deaths in and around the city have been blamed on the March 11 match 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.
Madrid is one of Europe’s worst affected cities and Spain has the second highest number of confirmed infection cases in the world, behind the United States.
Local Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram told the BBC that an independent inquiry was needed into a potential connection with a surge of cases in Liverpool since the game.
“If people have contracted coronavirus as a direct result of a sporting event that we believe shouldn’t have taken place, well that is scandalous,” he said. “That’s put not just those people in danger, but those frontline staff in the NHS and others in their own families that may have contracted it. We’ve seen an increase in the infection curve, and that’s resulted in 1,200 people [in Liverpool] contracting Covid-19.”
“That needs to be investigated to find out whether some of those infections are due directly to the Atletico fans. There were coronavirus hot cities, and Madrid was one of those. They weren’t allowed to congregate in their own country, but 3,000 of those fans came over to ours, and potentially may well have spread coronavirus. So it does need looking at, and it does need the government to take some responsibility for not locking down sooner.”
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