Olympics 2024: 5 members of Australia women’s water polo team test positive for Covid

Covid-19 reared its ugly head just a couple of days before the official start of the Olympics in Paris as 5 Australian water polo players from the women’s team were infected.

Australia’s chef de mission Anna Meares said that the Covid cases were confined to the water polo team only, adding that the the affected players are clear to practice when they feel well enough to train.

“We treat Covid no differently to any other respiratory illness, but we want to ensure that we have our protocols working as well and dealing with these illnesses and minimizing them is a part and parcel of every Olympic Games,” she said on Wednesday.

The protocols include wearing masks and isolating from other team members outside of training. The whole team has been tested, according to Meares.

“More broadly, we have our respiratory illnesses protocol in place and we have reinforced with all of the teams as they arrive into our village,” she said. “Two basic rules around that really simple hygiene practices are effective. And if you are feeling unwell or have any symptoms, get tested.”

France’s health minister Frederic Valletoux, meanwhile, told a franceinfo broadcaster as quoted by USA Today, “Of course, Covid is here. We’ve seen a small peak. But we are far from what we saw in 2020, 2021, 2022.”

Paris is the first Olympics since the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021 and Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 were staged in Covid bubbles with rigorous testing protocols.

The Olympics this time will start from July 26 and go on till August 11 with the opening ceremony set to kick things off on the aforementioned 26th July.

(With Agency Inputs)

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