The thirteen cases of Covid-19 identified in footballers at Portuguese club Belenenses SAD, which for this reason could not field enough players on Saturday against Benfica, are probably associated with the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the team announced on Monday. National Institute of Health (Insa).
These are the first cases of the new variant detected in Portugal and, according to the public agency, one of the footballers had recently traveled to South Africa.
The staging of the match provoked a heated debate this weekend, the meeting not having been interrupted until the beginning of the second period when the Belenenses SAD team were reduced to six players while Benfica led 7- 0.