3rd February, 2021
Up to 600 players, officials, and staff for the Australian Open must quarantine until they provide a negative coronavirus test.
This is after a worker in one of the tournament’s quarantine hotels submitted a positive test for the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
In order to facilitate swift testing on Thursday, all matches at the six tune-up events for the grand slam in Melbourne were canceled for that day, the Australian Open tweeted on Wednesday.
The government of the state of Victoria said that the man last worked in the hotel on Friday, and submitted a negative test on that day.
He then tested positive on Tuesday.
A government statement said “all Australian Open players, officials and support staff who were staying at the Grand Hyatt” between Friday and Tuesday “are considered casual contacts (and) must immediately isolate and get tested.”
Looking at the Australian Open, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews was quoted as saying: “at this stage, there’s no impact to the tournament.”
It was not clear immediately which players were affected and it is also unclear how the build-up events which are all to end on Saturday will be completed.
Organisers planned an update for later Wednesday.
All players and their entourage had to quarantine for two weeks upon their arrival in Australia, a period that ended on the weekend.
Many were allowed to train for a few hours each day, but a group of more than 70 were not permitted to leave their hotel rooms during the period.
This was because other passengers aboard their charter flights to Melbourne had tested positive.
dpa/NAN