A passenger has tested positive on a third flight, arriving
in Melbourne from Doha, the event organizers said in a statement on Sunday.
This means an additional group of people, including a further 25 players, will
need to complete a 14-day hotel quarantine. It brings the total number of
players in a two-week isolation period to 72.
“The passenger is not a member of the playing contingent and
had tested negative before the flight,” the Australian Open organizers said in
the statement. “There were 58 passengers on the flight, including 25 players.
All are already in quarantine hotels.”
Players on two separate flights that arrived Friday from Los
Angeles and Abu Dhabi will spend two weeks in isolation without opportunities
to practice, after four positive Covid-19 cases were confirmed, including
tennis coach Sylvain Bruneau. Authorities disclosed the fourth positive test, a
member of a broadcast crew, on Sunday.
“We are in this situation, we have to deal with it, the
Australian Open is going ahead,” Tournament Director Craig Tiley told Channel 9
on Sunday. Players will be provided with fitness equipment for their hotel
rooms. “It’s a tough situation and we have got to do whatever we can to make it
as fair as possible for those players that are in lockdown,” he said.
Isolated players or officials aren’t permitted to leave
hotel rooms but some people in quarantine had caused issues by opening doors to
hold conversations, Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria commissioner Emma Cassar told
reporters Sunday in Melbourne. “There are a few people who are testing our
procedures and we would encourage them to remain in their rooms,” she said.
More than 1,200 officials, players and support teams
arriving in Australia ahead of the tournament had already been anticipating
strict rules. They’re all subject to mandatory isolation in designated hotels,
daily testing for Covid-19 and are restricted to daily five-hour blocks for
training and treatment.
Some athletes now in hotel lockdown, including Swiss player
Belinda Bencic and Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, posted messages to Twitter arguing
they’ll be disadvantaged by a lack of training. Uruguayan player Pablo Cuevas
and Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva uploaded videos to social media accounts
showing them hitting balls against upended mattresses inside their rooms.
The decision to allow Australian Open participants to enter
the country has been contentious because of government restrictions that have
capped arrivals of other international travelers, including citizens seeking to
return home. Australia, which has recorded fewer than 29,000 cases of Covid-19
and 909 deaths, tightened rules earlier this month in response to the more
transmissible U.K. Covid-19 variant.
Formula 1, which was scheduled to hold the first race of its
new season in Melbourne in March, delayed the event until November. A 2020 race
was canceled when a member of the McLaren Racing team tested positive for
coronavirus.
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