Charlton Athletic were one of those grounds to trial the return of fans in a socially-distanced manner (Photo: PA)

A program of trials to bring fans back to sporting fixtures across England will be “paused” because of a spike in coronavirus cases.

Iran PressEurope: The UK Government was advised last night to raise the infection level from three to four and this week a series of measures are expected to come in to effect nationally in an effort to quell the spread of infection.

Some venues have already held successful test events with as many as 1,000 supporters allowed into grounds with a date of 1 October targeted for wider implementation, but Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove revealed on Tuesday that the decision had been taken to roll back those schemes.

“It was the case that we were looking at a staged program of more people returning [to sporting events],” Gove told the BBC.

“It wasn’t going to be the case that we were going to have stadiums thronged with fans."

Globally, over 30.8 million have been infected, of which, nearly 21 million have recovered so far. At least 958,400 people have succumbed to the virus so far.

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