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At The Cricketers pub in the centre of Canterbury, staff had been geared up for lively St Patrick’s Day celebrations. The pub’s “Paddy shots” were on offer: two for £7. Irish music played in the background. But, on Tuesday lunchtime, there were few revellers.
“Normally, as soon as the doors open on St Patrick’s Day, we’re full,” said the manager, Ash Bolonghe, casting his arm around the near-empty pub, with only a handful of matinee theatre-goers sitting by the window for a pre-performance snack. “But not today.”
His bar staff, with masks and sanitiser to hand, had that morning gone to nearby Westgate Hall, one of four venues in the town set up to administer emergency precautionary antibiotics in the midst of the meningitis outbreak, with 11,000 doses said to be available in the town across the sites.
Further along the high street, it was a similar story. Another bar and live music venue was completely empty, its staff busily cleaning door handles and table tops. It had also expected to be busy, primarily with students or nearby office workers who regularly pop in for lunch.
Many of those students had left. At the University of Kent, where one of the two who died was a student, the campus appeared eerily quiet. The huge queues on Monday for masks and antibiotics at its Senate building had dwindled to a handful on Tuesday. While those at its halls of residence are to be offered the meningitis B vaccine, as announced by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and with in-person assessments cancelled and exams now moved to online, many had packed up early for Easter.
Most wearing masks, they could be seen trundling their suitcases along the high street headed for the town’s two train stations. The exodus, however, with many using public transport, may lead to concerns of the outbreak further spreading.
“Many of the students seem to have left,” said Bolonghe. His friend employs 15 students at a local coffee shop, he said, but all of them had now gone.
“It’s like Covid II,” said one female University of Kent student, 24, who did not wish to be named. “A lot of students have left. Three of my housemates have already gone.”
“I think people are less panicked than with Covid, because we’ve been through this before. And everyone is used to online exams now,” she added. “So people are calmer. But nobody is going out. It’s really, really quiet.” She had taken precautionary antibiotics at the Westgate Hall centre after seeing the huge queues on Monday at the university “and I was worried about catching something in the queue”.
Stephen, 24, was at Westgate Hall having been advised to get antibiotics after attending the Club Chemistry venue with work colleagues on one of the three nights earlier this month, 5, 6 and 7 March, that have been linked to the outbreak.
“I read it in the news, and last night they said they recommend people to come in for the antibiotic,” he said. “We all decided to come, just to be safe. I’ve got to take it seriously.” He added that he thought people could have been informed earlier, as he revisited the club the following weekend, which he would not have done had he been warned.
Roland Cobbett, 66, a researcher in archeology, had sought antibiotics as a precaution as he used the University of Kent library and cafe. “It’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said. He described the swift setting up of the antibiotic clinics as “absolutely brilliant”.
Apart from students, however, few were wearing masks as people went about daily life on the town’s high street. Lunchtime footfall at some of the main restaurants did appear low, but people were still sitting outside in the sunshine, enjoying a pint or a coffee.
On the Canterbury Residents Facebook group, worried parents queried whether they should take their children out of school. There were also calls for a petition to extend the vaccination programme locally beyond the student halls of residence.
Pauline, 72, a retired tech analyst, said: “I’ve been to the supermarket twice. I’m not in a blind panic. I don’t think this is as scary as Covid.” Footfall was quieter than usual in the town, she said, but she could well understand the concern. “Everybody knows that all the kids congregate at Chemistry.”
Those who attended Club Chemistry can collect antibiotics from: the Gate Clinic at Kent and Canterbury hospital; Westgate Hall on Westgate Hall Road in Canterbury; the Thanet Community Health Hub on Northwood Road in Broadstairs; and the Senate building at the University of Kent.
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