MELBOURNE, Australia – Three more people linked to the Australian Open have tested positive for COVID-19 in Melbourne, increasing to 10 those associated with the Grand Slam tennis tournament starting on 8 February.
Victoria State Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville confirmed the new cases were detected on Wednesday, adding that authorities are “very confident” that one of the cases is a tennis player who is spilling the virus and that it is not infectious.
The player is already in a hard lock as he was on board a flight to Melbourne with another positive case. The other two cases are a player and his support person.
These 10 positive cases cause a total of 72 players to remain in a hard lock after being considered close contacts of these positives on three charter flights to Melbourne from Abu Dhabi, Doha and Los Angeles.
There were 17 charter flights from the tournament that arrived in Australia over three days last week so players and their entourage could spend a mandatory 14-day quarantine before the tournament.
Australian Open director Craig Tiley said 3,200 tests had been conducted on more than 1,200 players, support staff and tournament officials.
“We are on our sixth day and so far the figures have been extremely low and, in the case of active cases, they are heading straight to the mid-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 media.
“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 and protected the community as we have done. We will continue to do so. “
Tennis Australia has declined 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 mostly closed, although there are exceptions in special circumstances. All arrivals must make a mandatory quarantine.
The state of Victoria, which has Melbourne as its capital, accounted for 810 of Australia’s 909 deaths from COVID-19, most during a second deadly wave three months ago that caused curfews and city closures.