WHO says risk of infection appears to be high at small gatherings in indoor venues

Britain’s restaurants, pubs, cinemas and other community focal points remain open despite the World Health Organization placing an emphasis on limiting smaller gatherings to counter the coronavirus spread.

There was a particular risk for gatherings in locations with poor ventilation, said Dr David Nabarro, one of the WHO’s six special envoys on coronavirus, who made a plea for people to follow “cough etiquette” in public.

“We are operating on the basic assumption that the home is a primary place where transmission has been occurring, but something else we are also really picking up on is that in places where ventilation is poor, or if there is ventilation but a lack of proper filtration, then that can also be seriously bad,” he told the Guardian on Thursday.

He was speaking before a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee, where ministers are expected to agree to move into the “delay” stage of its coronavirus strategy. This involves social distancing measures, such as restricting public gatherings and issuing more widespread advice to stay at home.

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Nabarro said that information on how the virus was spreading was more circumstantial, and data was based on the still-evolving situations in countries such as China, South Korea and Iran, but he said that, after the home, transmission appeared to often be taking place indoors where people were gathered around tables.

“We are coming across stories where people, for example, have been sitting around a table in a restaurant or bar, where they are closer than 2 metres, spend quite a bit of time in each other’s company and the amount of time that passes is not clear. That appears to be the next commonest place where infections are taking place.

“That is why restaurants, pubs and churches – churches in particular because of physical closeness – are of interest.”

By contrast, while a spotlight had fallen on the future of major sporting and other mass events, he said the evidence suggested that in open-air settings with good circulation only people in the immediate vicinity of an infected person were at risk.

However, there was concern that larger events used resources such as police and stewards at a time when they should be focused on the broader effort to counter the outbreak.

On Thursday, Ireland became the latest European country to go further than the UK by shutting down all schools, colleges and childcare settings, and banning all indoor gatherings involving 100 people or more.

Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced that she was minded to cancel large gatherings of more than 500 people to protect frontline services.

Umbrella and trade bodies in the UK said they were following government guidelines, which have yet to take the same steps as other countries.

Emma McClarkin, the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “Pubs and their staff are adopting a common sense approach towards Covid-19, and we have provided detailed briefings to all our members including advice from Public Health England and the NHS.

“We are monitoring the situation and official advice closely. Unless official advice changes, people can still go and enjoy the great British pub.”

As an indication of how families were reacting, some users of Mumsnet were taking steps to limit unnecessary social contact, according to Justine Roberts, the founder of the parenting website.

“But at the moment this tends to mean avoiding large public gatherings rather than smaller, more local events such as birthday parties,” she added. “There’s a strong feeling that while schools and childcare settings remain open, there’s little point in cancelling the odd playdate.”

Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, which represents the majority of Britain’s cinema operators, said it had not issued any specific guidelines to members but was monitoring and following government advice.

The chief medical officer has said there is no need for businesses to take measures to keep a distance between customers, although one cinema company operating in Northern Ireland and the Republic has taken unilateral action.

A “seat separation” policy, which means every second seat will be left unoccupied in a checkerboard pattern, was implemented by the Omniplex cinema chain.

“We are monitoring government advice and will of course act if anything changes,” Clapp said.