NHS board issues warning after Covid-19 outbreak linked to hotel party

A health board has issued a plea to people who attended an event at a St Andrews hotel after an outbreak of coronavirus cases.

NHS Fife warned anyone who went to the night out at the Fairmont Hotel on Saturday, December 4, to be “especially vigilant” of Covid-19 symptoms.

A Christmas party event featuring a Take That tribute band was hosted at the venue that evening.

Some of the cases are expected to be the highly transmissible newly identified Omicron variant.

A notice issued by the board said Fife’s Health Protection Team was working closely with colleagues in Fife’s Council’s environmental health service and the management of the hotel to reduce the risk for further spread of the virus.

NHS Fife’s deputy director of Public Health, Dr Esther Curnock, said: “The evidence at this stage suggests at least some of the those who are known to have tested positive are likely to have been carrying the omicron variant of the virus, which we know is highly transmissible.

“It is vital, therefore, that all of those who attended event remain vigilant of the signs and symptoms of the virus, and isolate immediately should any of these develop.”

Anyone experiencing symptoms, no matter how mild, has been urged to self-isolate immediately and book a test.

The announcement on Saturday comes as new Covid isolation rules came into force in the face of rising cases of the infectious Omicron coronavirus variant.

The household contacts of any person who tests positive for Covid should now isolate for ten days regardless of their vaccination status and even if they initially get a negative PCR test.

Dr Curnock said: “There is clear evidence both here in Fife and elsewhere, that vaccination considerably reduces your risk of coming to serious harm and so we are continuing to urge those who haven’t yet been fully vaccinated to take up that offer as soon as possible.“

Fairmont Hotel has been asked for comment.

Around 40 A&E workers at a hospital in South Lanarkshire are self-isolating following an outbreak of Omicron linked to their Christmas party.

People are being urged to defer Christmas parties this year due to the number of Covid-19 outbreaks linked to such events.