Let’s face it. This was inevitable, wasn’t it? After England scrapped almost all Covid-19 restrictions last month, it was only a matter of time before a mass gathering somewhere was blamed for a big outbreak of the virus. The only surprise is that it’s taken nearly five weeks for this to happen.

The Boardmasters festival which took place in Newquay in the south west of England between August 11th and 15th is suspected of being responsible for somewhere between 4000 and 5000 cases of the dreaded coronavirus. Indeed, the festival is being blamed for Newquay currently having some of the highest Covid rates in the UK.

So what’s the picture in nightclubs? Much to my surprise, few cases seem to be originating in them at present. I’ve heard a couple of anecdotal stories of people catching the virus after attending the first clubs to reopen, but nothing on the scale which leads me to think a club somewhere is trying to hide a big outbreak.

Indeed, the only outbreak associated with nightclubs mentioned in the press lately is a venue in Lincoln which health officials refused to name – and they’re not even sure how many of those can be directly attributed to the unnamed club.

All in all, I have to admit I’m somewhat surprised. Was I wrong to say the government would blame nightclubs for future outbreaks? Ask me again in a few months and I’ll know for sure…