By Luke Williamson
Varsity 2020 has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, De Montfort University and University of Leicester have announced.
The annual sporting competition, which was due to start on Thursday [19MAR], was abandoned after UOL entered its period of social distancing due to the disease.
In a statement to students on Friday, DMU said: “Due to the UK Government’s latest advice to delay the spread of coronavirus, DMU and the University of Leicester have jointly taken the decision to cancel all Varsity fixtures.
“We realise this might be disappointing at short notice, but the health and safety of our community must always be our highest priority.
“Both Universities are saddened that they’ve had to make such a difficult decision,” the statement said.
The decision came in the light of new national and international developments, but the University did state that it had had no cases of COVID-19 at DMU.
In addition to this, DMUSports released a statement to coaches and players in its sports teams surrounding University sport, and released a condensed version to Instagram and Twitter on Monday [16MAR] afternoon.
The statement read: “Due to the Government’s latest advice to delay the spread of coronavirus, we’ve taken the decision to cancel the following activities until at least the 27th of April.
“Club training, DMUActive and active leagues, all competitions and tournaments (including BUCS and club run events), Sports Awards and all other student activity related to sport,” the statement read.
The news came after the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said that everyone in the UK should avoid non-essential travel and social contact with others to help delay the spread of the disease.
This meant that the DecolonisingDMU event at the Edith Murphy building on Wednesday [18MAR] was also cancelled.
There have now been five confirmed cases in Leicestershire with 1,543 cases in the UK according to Public Health England at nine o’clock this morning.
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