By 
Hospital wards have been closed as Gloucestershire experiences a “little surge” of Covid-19 on the third anniversary of the Cheltenham Festival “super-spreader”.
There has been a slight rise in the number of people contracting the disease over the last ten days, health chiefs revealed at a meeting earlier this week.
This news comes during Cheltenham Festival which is believed could have helped accelerate the spread of coronavirus during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.
Data leaked to the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the time showed Cheltenham had the highest number of coronavirus hospital admissions in Gloucestershire as of April 3.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson (LD, Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach) asked for an update on the prevalence of Covid-19 in the county at the health overview and scrutiny committee meeting on March 14.
“Anecdotally, I’ve seen people, not on social media, friends and colleagues getting Covid. It seems to be that within the last few weeks more people are getting it, sadly,” he told the meeting at Shire Hall.
Health chiefs confirmed that Gloucestershire was experiencing a “little surge” of Covid which has led to the closure of some wards at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospital.
“Over the last week to ten days we’ve seen a slight rise in numbers again. Both Cheltenham General and Gloucester have got some wards closed at the moment,” said Eve Olivant, the senior system flow lead at NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board.
“There are a few [cases]. We’ve seen a slight increase in our independent sector with closures as well. The numbers are certainly not as high as they have been in previous spikes but this is also representative regionally, as well. All of the South West appears to be having another little surge.”
The Jockey Club has been approached for comment but none was available at the time of going to press.
By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk
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