Coronavirus: Run Wigan Festival WILL go ahead

The fourth annual Run Wigan Festival is set to go ahead later this month as planned, with organisers keeping a close eye on the coronavirus outbreak.

Several large running events have already been cancelled or postponed, including Rome, Barcelona and Paris marathons, with the teams behind London and Bolton marathons saying they are monitoring the situation.

This is the same approach being taken by organisers of Wigan’s running spectacle, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 22.

Race director Matt Johnson said: “We are keeping our eye on it and monitoring the situation. At this time that’s what we are doing - monitoring the situation and seeing how things develop over the coming few days.

“It is a UK Athletics race and were are ruled by the rules and regulations. The town centre activities come under the remit of Wigan Council as well, so we will be in dialogue with them.

“Obviously the situation is changing on a daily basis and we are aware we are just two weeks away from the event. It’s something that’s high on our list and something we are monitoring.”

Entries continue to pour in for the event, with more than 900 people registered for the half marathon and hundreds signed up for the 10-mile race, 5k and family mile.

The runners and walkers will pass Wigan landmarks along the routes, with supporters expected to line the streets to cheer them on,

After crossing the finish line, they will receive goodies including a medal and a pie. There will also be live music in the town centre and they can claim free entry to Wigan Warriors’ match against Catalans that afternoon.

The participants, along with organisers, will be seeing how the coronavirus outbreak continues to develop locally ahead of the festival.

There have been three confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the borough so far, with two of these understood to be parents of pupils at Garrett Hall Primary School in Tyldesley, who had been in direct contact with two people confirmed to have the illness.

The school was shut on Thursday and Friday for “specialist deep cleaning” as a precaution.

St Mark’s CE Primary School in Newtown and St George’s CE Primary School in Atherton were closed on Monday and Tuesday after a member of staff became ill with “flu-like” symptoms and was quarantined in hospital.

Wigan Council’s public health director Prof Kate Ardern has urged people to follow good hygiene measures, including washing hands with hot water and soap for the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice.

She said the council had “tried and tested plans” for dealing with the outbreak and was working with partners, including NHS Wigan Borough CCG and schools.