Portugal detected 13 cases of the Ômicron variant of the coronavirus, this Monday (29), involving athletes and employees of the Benelenses football team, from Lisbon.
One of the players on the team recently returned from a trip to South Africa, said the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) of Portugal.
The new variant was found after Benelenses face Benfica, last Saturday, in a match for the Primeira Liga, the main division of Portuguese football.
Benelenses went to the field with just nine players, because the rest of the team had to isolate themselves after being infected or having close contact with Covid-19 cases.
Benfica opened a score of 7-0 in the first half, and Benelenses returned with just seven players from the locker room for the second half.
Right at the beginning of the second stage, João Monteiro, the second goalkeeper for Benelenses who was playing as a forward, fell on the pitch alleging injury. With only six athletes available for Benelenses, the match was closed.
“We’re all isolated, except for the youth team that didn’t play on Saturday, 44 people are isolated at home,” a club spokesman said on Monday.
“Two or three players and two or three employees have symptoms, but nothing too serious, the rest are asymptomatic. Everyone is waiting to repeat the tests, as soon as the health authority authorizes it”, he added.
The presidents of Benfica and Belenenses said at a press conference on Saturday that they had no choice but to play the game or risk being punished for “unjustified absence”. They blamed the league and DGS for not allowing the game to be postponed.
Belenenses defender Cafu Phete tested positive for Covid-19, after returning to Portugal last week from an international trip to South Africa.
DGS said on Monday that it does not comment on football games. A spokesman for the DGS said that it was not up to the health authority to postpone the game, but rather to assess the situation of Covid-19 and implement measures, such as isolation, to prevent the spread of the disease.
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Reference: CNN Brasil
