Woman who got ill after fitting kilts for Nike conference guests in Edinburgh outbreak 'was not traced' for tests

The Scottish Government was accused of failing to tell the public about the outbreak being described as 'ground zero' in the capital.

A woman who fitted kilts for delegates at a Nike conference branded “ground zero” for coronavirus in Edinburgh says she was not traced for tests.

Gillian Rainford, who has asthma, revealed she fell ill with flu-like symptoms after spending 75 minutes with visitors to the gathering in February.

The employee spoke out for the first time since the kilt shop was linked to the outbreak.

She told the Edinburgh Evening News: “I have remained anonymous on this so far but I have decided to speak out.

“Why was I never informed that I had been put at risk and potentially had the virus?

“This was all happening while I was living my life as normal, mixing with family and friends, attending events and going on holiday abroad? Why?”

She felt ill a few days later and had to use her inhaler more frequently, but it is not known if she had Covid-19.

Gillian said she went to Portugal with her fiancee in mid-March and visited Eilean Donan Castle in the Highlands.

“Thankfully I didn’t develop further symptoms, but surely I should have been informed that I had been put at risk and been given the opportunity to be tested?" she said.

“Why did nobody contact me, or my colleagues, as part of tracking and tracing?”

Investigations found at least 25 people linked to the event  at an Edinburgh hotel over February 26-27 contracted Covid-19, including eight in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has been under pressure since the BBC revealed how infections spread from the Nike conference without the public being alerted by authorities.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has insisted all proper guidance was followed but patient confidentiality meant information was not all released.

Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, said: “This matter because as the government belatedly introduces its test, trace, isolate strategy, there are now questions about whether people can have faith in it."

Time Line

Here’s how the Nike conference fits into the coronavirus timeline in Scotland:

1. February 26-27Nike holds its conference at the Hilton on North Bridge, Edinburgh. Seventy people attend.
2. March 1First positive case of Covid-19 confirmed in the Tayside region of Scotland.
3. March 2Health Protection Scotland alerted by international authorities about one person, not from the UK, who tested positive after attending the conference. The public is not informed.
4. March 3One person in Scotland connected to the event tests positive. Scottish Government ministers are informed that evening.
5. March 4The Scottish Government confirms two positive cases in a public notice which does not refer to the conference or Edinburgh.
6. March 8Thousands of Scottish and French rugby fans gather at Murrayfield stadium for a sell-out Six Nations game in Edinburgh.
7. March 11The World Health Organisation declares a global pandemic. The first case in Scotland of community transmission unrelated to contact or travel is identified.
8. March 13First confirmed death of a patient in Scotland with Covid-19.
9. March 15Nicola Sturgeon advises organisers to cancel or postpone events of 500 people or more.
10. March 24First day of “lockdown” in the UK.
11. May 11The BBC reveals publicly for the first time how the virus was transmitted at the Edinburgh conference.
12. May 17New claims that staff at a kilt hire shop fitted 10 delegates, including a women who became ill, were not warned. It was also claimed a digital marketing business in Glasgow that shares space with Nike were not told about the link.
13. May 19Fresh claims delegates were split into three groups and taken on walking tours of the Old Town. No one from the tour company was traced for testing, although none became ill. It was claimed by Sky News that delegates performed a “Nike haka” in the lobby of the hotel. It’s reported that 20 Lloyds Banking Group employees who shared facilities with Nike were not traced.
14. May 24It emerges two Dutch employees were at the conference in Edinburgh. One of them is believed to have triggered a shutdown of the firms’s HQ in the Netherlands on March 1-2. It also emerged, through local media in north-east England, that their “patient zero” had attended the Edinburgh event. The infection was then said to have passed to a second person at a child’s birthday party in Newcastle.