Competitor at surfing championships awaits confirmation of positive Covid test
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All those who attended the Scottish National Surfing Championships at the weekend have been asked to do a lateral flow test after one of the competitors started to display symptoms of Covid-19.
Local Covid-19 officer for the event, Marcelle Lockhart, has put a request out on the Scottish Surfing Federation Facebook page for people to do a test and send the results to her via WhatsApp.
The competition organisers followed a strict protocol prior to the championships taking place in Thurso with all those attending having to carry out lateral flow tests on the Thursday and registering results online.
Those travelling were advised to do an additional test of their own before setting off which did in fact stop three competitors who tested positive from heading north.
Marcelle explained that a surfer, who had been at the social evening and presentation in the town's Pentland Hotel on Saturday night, carried out a lateral flow test after feeling unwell on his return home from Caithness, which returned a positive result. They were still awaiting confirmation from a PCR test result.
She pointed out: "He had tested before coming to the competition and again on the Friday night and both were negative. On the Sunday when he got home he did another which has come back positive.
"We then were asking everybody who had been there to do a lateral flow test – the close contact people have been contacted individually and the only time he could have been in close contact would have been at the table in the Pentland Hotel. We are just hoping there aren't any others – at the moment we are keeping our fingers crossed."
Fortunately the competitor had stayed in their own vehicle and not used the surf hut at Thurso East.
The Covid-19 officer, who worked hard to make sure the event complied with Scottish Government guidelines, said they were really pleased they had put the testing protocol in place as it had managed to stop the three people who tested positive from travelling to the county.
Those attending the weekend were part of a WhatsApp group and have all been informed about the situation and have been requested to carry out another lateral flow test.
