Rugby club trip to St Leger Festival in Doncaster blamed for Welsh local lockdown

UPDATED: Doncaster Racecourse have issued a statement clarifying that they have received confirmation from Public Health Wales that the group in question did not visit the St Leger last week. They also said they had had no contact with the track and trace system over the group and had not sold any tickets to customers from the south Wales area.

The unnamed club's members were among 2,500 spectators allowed into Doncaster Racecourse for the first day of the St Leger Festival as part of a crowd trial. The pilot was later abandoned and the remaining three days of racing took place behind closed doors.

The Welsh health minister Vaughan Gethin confirmed today that the outing was one of the reasons why a coronavirus cluster had been detected in the Rhondda Cynon Taf Council area.

The group stopped off at several pubs along the way during their journey to Doncaster.

Restrictions in the area have now been tightened.

A second rugby club and a pub in the Rhondda Valley have also been linked to a number of Covid-19 cases.

From 6pm tomorrow, people will not be allowed to enter or leave the Rhondda Cynon Taf Council area without a reasonable excuse;

They will only be able to meet outdoors.

All licensed premises will have to close at 11pm.

Contact tracing teams have been able to trace about half of the cases back to a series of clusters.

So far there is no suggestion that cases connected to the Welsh group have been detected in Doncaster.