ANDl return of the public to sporting events in the United States reached its climax with the near 40,000 spectators packed into Globe Life Field to watch the game between the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays. Previously, other competitions opened their doors, on a limited basis.
The The NFL has advanced that it expects to fill the sports venues from September with the start of the season. This announcement by Commissioner Roger Goodell comes on the heels of a Lancet study on the effect of the presence of fans at NFL games on coronavirus outbreaks.
The study, led by Justin Kurland of the University of Southern Mississippi, sampled the number of positive cases not just from counties where all 32 NFL teams play, but also in the surrounding areas to trace the spread among fans who may have come from there.
The results reveal that there was an increase in infection rates in the second and third weeks after the NFL games that were played with more than 5,000 fans present. The study suggests a relationship between fan attendance and coronavirus cases.
More than a dozen NFL teams hosted games with more than 5,000 spectators during the regular season. The Dallas Cowboys averaged more than 28,000 fans in their games at home, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars (15,919), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14,483) and Kansas City Chiefs (13,153), according to data collected The New York Times.
The results of the specific attendance tests indicate that those matches that had fewer than 5,000 fans did not spike the COVID-19 case count however, those with more than 20,000 spectators generated significantly higher peaks in the count of cases per inhabitant, within 21 days after the meeting was held.
The authors conclude that in view of these data the return of the public to sporting events and other mass gatherings it must be handled with extreme caution and, in fact, may be premature.
Another study, published by the Florida Department of Health, has already determined that Covid-19 infection rates were “slightly higher” in the Tampa area compared to the rest of Florida in the weeks after the city hosted the SuperBowl. The state health department found that most of the virus transmission was “likely from private gatherings, in homes, or unofficial events in bars and restaurants.”
