England’s one-day international against Pakistan at Lord’s on July 10 will go ahead at full capacity after the match was added to the UK Government’s Events Research Programme.
Lord’s has been in consultation with Public Health England and its local Safety Advisory Group on the arrangements for the match and it has been agreed that the 30,000-seat stadium can operate at 100% capacity.
All England-based ticket holders aged 11 and over will be required to provide evidence of their COVID-19 status, either through a negative Lateral Flow Test, proof of full vaccination, or proof of natural immunity in the shape of a positive PCR in the last 180 days (and not in the last 10 days).
All events in the third phase of the ERP will trial the NHS App and COVID-19 status to explore all ways of allowing more fans to return to events as safely and efficiently as possible.
There will be no social distancing in the stands at Lord’s and the rule of six will not apply at the venue’s restaurants and hospitality areas. Face coverings will be required when moving around the ground but not while seated, with hand sanitisers to be situated across the venue.
The match will mark the first time that England has played a home international at full capacity since September 2019. Last week, it was announced that the ODI at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Stadium on July 13 will welcome around 19,000 fans with the venue operating at 80% capacity.
Edgbaston welcomed around 60,000 spectators across four days as it operated at 70% capacity during England’s Test match against New Zealand from June 10-14. The Test match marked the first pilot event within the second phase of the ERP.
The ODIs at Edgbaston and Lord’s will form part of the third phase of the ERP, which also includes UEFA Euro 2020 matches held at London’s Wembley Stadium, the Wimbledon tennis grand slam and next month’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
It emerged yesterday (Wednesday) that almost 1,300 Scotland fans who travelled to London for the Euro 2020 match against England at Wembley on June 18 have since tested positive for COVID-19.
Data from Public Health Scotland also found that there were 1,991 “football-related” cases in the country. These relate to fans that either attended matches at Wembley or Hampden Park, visited a fan zone in Glasgow, or watched games in a pub or at a house party.
Some 397 positive tests are said to be from fans who attended the England-Scotland match.
Image: Yorkspotter/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size
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