Four coronavirus cases have been detected from charter flights transporting tennis players, coaches and officials to the Australian Open to Melbourne, forcing 47 players to strict hotel quarantine.
Health authorities have confirmed that three positive tests for Covid-19 were returned on Saturday and one on Sunday. None of the cases have involved players so far.
However, the players of the two flights affected – from Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi – were in a strict 14-day quarantine and could not leave their hotel rooms or practice, the health authorities and organizers of the tournament said on Saturday. The Australian Open starts on 8 February.
Health authorities initially said two positive Covid-19 cases – a coach and a member of the air crew – emerged from a charter flight from Los Angeles, and the other positive test was a coach on the flight from Abu Dhabi. Emma Cassar, a quarantine commissioner for Covid-19 in Victoria, returned at a news conference on Sunday another positive test of a member of a television broadcast team returning from the Los Angeles flight.
All four cases were tested negative before fleeing to Australia.
Coach of Canadian star Bianca Andreescu said he tested positive after arriving from Abu Dhabi. Sylvain Bruneau said the “rest of my team is negative.”
Tennis Australia confirmed there were 24 players on the flight from Los Angeles and 23 on the flight from Abu Dhabi. It was among 17 charter flights from seven international destinations that brought up to 1,200 players, coaches, staff and officials to Australia for the tournament.
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley issued a statement on Saturday saying organizers “communicate with everyone on this flight, and especially the playgroup whose circumstances have now changed, to ensure that their needs are met as much as possible and that they fully assess the situation. ”
Tiley told Australia’s Nine Network on Sunday that organizers and players had been warned that there was a ‘significant risk’ players could be restricted if Covid-19 was positive.
“We made it very clear at the beginning,” Tiley said. “Now we have to manage an environment for the next 14 days for those who cannot exercise.”
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Kei Nishikori, the 2014 US Open runner-up, and two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka were among a group of players who arrived on the flight from Los Angeles.
British player Heather Watson said on Twitter that she and others who arrived from Abu Dhabi may NOT come out of our rooms. She posted the notice that she and others who were on the run were notifying them of the quarantine.
“The chief health officer checked the flight and determined that everyone on board should isolate themselves and be confined to their rooms for the 14-day quarantine period,” reads the notice that Watson posted.
If they can not leave their room, it means that the only training sessions on a training equipment will be in the rooms of all the players.
Other players will be allowed to exercise for up to five hours a day under strict conditions and under supervision, although the training sessions in Melbourne have been delayed while the health authorities have waited to receive all the coronavirus tests.
Several players in quarantine, including Sorana Cirstea from Romania, Belinda Bencic from Switzerland and Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan, reported on social media that the rules seem to have changed between what they saw before traveling to Australia and what they did in Melbourne. was imposed.
Tiley said there were no plans to postpone the Australian Open any further – it starts three weeks later than usual.
Australia’s international borders are basically closed to travelers, although there are exemptions in special circumstances.
Australia has done the coronavirus relatively well with 909 deaths at the national level.