Eat Out to Help Out ‘accelerated second wave of Covid-19’

The government initiative that encouraged Brits to visit restaurants accelerated the rate of coronavirus infections, according to a new study.

Research from University of Warwick suggests that the government scheme may be responsible for eight to 17% of newly-detected Covid-19 clusters in August and early September.

The scheme, headed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, saw the government paying up to £10 per person on restaurant bills between Monday and Wednesday during August, with more than 64 million meals purchased as part of the scheme.

However, with the following months bringing increasing levels of lockdown measures across the country and forcing curfews and closures on establishments, it’s been argued that the scheme ultimately harmed the sector.

Visit our live blog for the latest updates Coronavirus news live

Dr Thiemo Fetzer, the associate professor behind the study, said the Eat Out to Help Out initiative ‘shortened the time between the UK’s first and second coronavirus waves’ and was not beneficial for establishments in the long run.

He told The Independent: ‘Many restaurants enjoyed a good August, but they won’t enjoy a good autumn because as infections rise, people are less likely to eat out and obviously any lockdown will make things even worse for the restaurant sector.

‘The acceleration of the pandemic, that requires more aggressive measures like a lockdown, is the result of policy failures — including not having an effective test and trace system in place that would allow businesses to safely operate.’

Dr Fetzer went on to claim that this rise in infection rate is a ‘consequence of very shortsighted policies that generate nice headlines, as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme did over the summer.’

Restaurants that participated in the scheme saw a year-on-year visit increase of between 10 to 200% during the same period.

However, the bounce-back was short-lived, with new restrictions steadily being implemented to stop a rise in cases.

Boy, 17, brought to US as baby deported to Mexico for weed possession

Dr Fetzer underlined: ‘Ultimately, by accelerating the pandemic, it was a false economy.’

Earlier this month Boris Johnson admitted that Eat Out to Help Out may have been a factor in the rise of coronavirus cases since summer.

Speaking to the BBC, the PM said: ‘Insofar as that scheme may have helped to spread the virus then obviously we need to counteract that with the discipline and the measures that we’re proposing.’

A Treasury spokesman told the Independent: ‘We do not recognise these figures — which, as the study itself admits, are ‘back-of-the-envelope’ calculations.

‘Many other European counterparts have experienced an uptick in cases — irrespective of whether similar measures for the hospitality industry have been introduced.

‘We’re continuing to work closely with businesses to help them be Covid-secure.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.