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Plans for fans to watch live sporting events again in England from October 1 will not go ahead, says Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove.
The plans were put under review earlier this month after a surge in coronavirus cases, with pilot events restricted to 1,000 people.
The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been moved to 4, meaning transmission is “high or increasing exponentially”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will establish new measures on Tuesday.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Gove confirmed that plans for a fan-staged comeback would be “paused.”
“We were watching an organized show where more people were coming back; it wasn’t going to be the case that we had stadiums packed with fans,” he said.
“We are looking at how we can, for the moment, stop that program, but what we do want to do is make sure that, when circumstances allow, we get more people back.
“The virus is less likely to spread outdoors than indoors, but again it is in the nature of big sporting events that there is a lot of mixing.”
Most sports in England have been played behind closed doors since the coronavirus shutdown in March, including Premier League football, the FA Cup final, England’s Test cricket matches and two Formula 1 races in Silverstone.
The sporting events that took place with crowds of spectators in March, shortly before all matches were postponed and the UK locked out, have come under scrutiny.
The impact of Liverpool’s Champions League match with Atlético de Madrid on the spread of the coronavirus is being investigated by the city council, while an investigation has also been requested on whether the Cheltenham Festival should have moved on.
The government defended its decision to allow such events to take place before restrictions on mass gatherings were introduced.
“People now look back at the beginning of the pandemic at some of the major sporting events back then and wonder why they were allowed to go ahead,” Gove added.
“What we need to do is look at sporting events now with caution, but we also recognize that sport is a vital part of this nation and we are seeing all that we can do to support our athletes, our great clubs, through what it will be a challenging time. “
Earlier this month, Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters told BBC Sport was “absolutely critical” Fans were allowed to return to the stadiums as soon as possible and failure to do so would cost clubs £ 700 million during the 2020-21 season.
In late August, 2,500 people watched a friendly between Brighton and Chelsea at the Seagulls’ Amex Stadium, the first time fans have been allowed onto a Premier League field in nearly six months.
About 300 spectators they were allowed to look last month’s World Snooker Championship final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Kyren Wilson at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, but the original plans to admit fans on all days of the tournament were reversed.
Arsenal’s 9-1 victory over West Ham in the Women’s Super League on September 12 was attended by up to 1,000 fans.
More than 2,500 spectators bought tickets for the first day of the St Leger meeting in Doncaster on September 9, the first crowd at a British horse racing event in six months, but the remainder of the meeting was then it was kept behind closed doors.
More to follow.
