MELBOURNE, Australia – Three more people at the Australian Open have tested positive for COVID-19 in Melbourne, up from 10 on the February 8 Grand Slam tennis tournament.
Victoria’s emergency services minister, Lisa Neville, confirmed that the new cases were detected on Wednesday, adding that the authorities are “very confident”, one of which is a tennis player who throws the virus and is not infectious.
The player is already in a strong block, as they were on board a flight to Melbourne, with another positive case. The other two cases are a player and their support person.
These 10 positive cases mean that a total of 72 players remain stuck, after being considered close contacts of these positives on three charter flights to Melbourne from Abu Dhabi, Doha and Los Angeles.
There were 17 tournament charter flights that arrived in Australia over three days last week, so players and their entourage could be subject to a mandatory quarantine 14 days before the tournament.
Australian Open director Craig Tiley said 3,200 tests were performed on the more than 1,200 players, support staff and tournament officials.
“We are on our sixth day and so far the number has been extremely low and, if there are active cases, I go straight to the average hotel,” he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday.
Tiley criticized what he said was a “minority” of players who continue to complain about the conditions of hotel quarantine on social networks.
“Culturally, there is a different approach to how the virus is managed,” he said. “We are proud here in Victoria and Australia of how we have done it and protected the community as we have done it. We will continue to do this. ”
Tennis Australia has refused to provide The Associated Press with a list of the 72 affected players, but many have made their status known through social media posts.
Australia’s international borders are largely closed, although there are exemptions in special circumstances. All arrivals must make a mandatory quarantine.
Victoria, the capital of Melbourne, accounted for 810 of the 909 deaths in Australia caused by COVID-19, most of them during a second deadly wave three months ago that led to extinguishments and blockages for Town.