Sports Press-USA TODAY Sports
MELBOURNE (AP) – All six Australian Open set-up events scheduled for Thursday were called off after a worker at one of Melbourne’s quarantine hotels in the tournaments tested positive for COVID-19.
Players preparing for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, which is supposed to start on Monday, have to isolate themselves in their hotels until they are negative for coronavirus disease.
“We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as soon as possible,” Tennis Australia said in a statement announcing the postponement of all matches due to be played on Thursday at Melbourne Park.
Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said he convened a press conference on Wednesday to announce the case “with great caution,” although he acknowledged that new restrictions could affect hundreds of people associated with the Australian Open.
Andrews spoke before the entire Thursday play was postponed, which he acknowledged was a possibility. But as for the Australian Open, Andrews said: “Right now, there’s no impact on the tournament.”
All players, coaches or officers who were quarantined at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne were considered to be occasional contacts of the 26-year-old infected man and were forced to remain in their hotels until they were negative. .
Everyone in the city will have to wear masks inside.
The hotel announces that it has 550 rooms, including 25 premium suites, so potentially hundreds of people associated with the tournament could be forced to stay isolated again. This could test the resolution of players who have recently come out of two weeks in quarantine and give critics ammunition of the decision to allow people to fly from all over the world for the first major of the year.
The organizers of the Australian Open did not immediately have details of how many players they should isolate.
Under current plans, up to 30,000 daily spectators are expected in Melbourne Park for the two-week Grand Slam event and there was no immediate indication of a change.
All those arriving in Australia must pass a mandatory 14-day quarantine under the COVID-19 pandemic regulations. The Australian Open used three hotels in Melbourne to get most players into quarantine and had other safe accommodation and facilities in Adelaide, South East Australia, for some of the biggest stars, including Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Players were tested every day during their forties and were not allowed to leave hotels without a negative result.
The infected worker tested negative on his last day at the hotel on January 29, but later tested positive and has been working with the government and health workers on locating contacts. Andrews said the man was in a medical center and dozens of close contacts were compulsorily isolated.
“It simply came to our notice then. People don’t have to panic, “said Andrews. “People don’t need to be alarmed. We Victorians know what we have to do and we have shown, as a state, that we have been very successful in managing this type of outbreak, this type of issue.
Earlier Wednesday, health officials in Victoria announced that the state had passed 28 days without any cases involving local transmissions.
Australia has 909 deaths attributed to COVID-19, including 820 in the state of Victoria. Most of them were during a second deadly wave last year when a hard blockade and curfews were established in Melbourne overnight.