Series A holds its breath after the first major case of contagion in a club in the Italian soccer first division.
Genoa reported on Monday that 14 members of its squad and club staff had tested positive for COVID-19 in the tests they were subjected to.
The outbreak completely breaks the schemes envisaged by the Italian Football Federation and puts the team on the ropes, which lost last weekend 6-0 against Naples.
But also many of his rivals.
If the trace of the chain of infections were to be lost, the championship could be interrupted, which in Italy had started again with a part of the public in the stadiums and with a protocol that has proven to be unsuccessful.
The club has tried to control the situation and has issued a statement which indicates that it has activated "all the procedures provided for by the current protocol and has informed the relevant authorities about the procedures." But the high number of infections suggests that it is not It will be enough. Among the 14 positives there are 11 players and three members of the
staff
. In addition, the Naples players have undergone the relevant tests to see if they could also be infected during the match.
On Saturday, before the game, the players - apart from Lasse Schöne, who was not called up due to his positive test - tested negative.
This was because they had just contracted the virus and it was still not detectable.
On Monday all the alarms went off.
According to the club's tracking, everything had been born in goalkeeper Mattia Perin, who already had a fever on Thursday, which tested positive on Saturday and had already infected his teammates.
Virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco analyzed at
Gazzetta dello Sport
that it was possible that the goalkeeper had been infected a week ago, on the team's rest day.
A margin of time that allowed him to train throughout the week with his colleagues without symptoms - even fever - and to spread it to them.
On Sunday, at 9.30 a.m., the team traveled to Naples with several infected members of the expedition.
Many of them - the name of the positives has not transcended - participated in the meeting and could infect their rivals.
A situation that reveals errors in the prevention system.
To begin with, in light of Genoa's chain of infections, testing just 48 hours before the game no longer seems a reliable enough method.
In addition, Pregliasco also pointed out that a bubble should be established for the social life of the players, as it happens in the NBA.
Genoa is very touched to continue participating in the next days.
A part of the squad could not face Torino next Saturday, but the high number of infections suggests that the game will have to be suspended and that the following matches are also compromised.
The problem is that if the chain of infections advances, as announced by the Deputy Minister of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri, the possibility of stopping the championship should be considered.
“Hugs and celebrations in the field should be prohibited.
The distance must be kept.
If 14 people have been infected with a positive result in a team, it means that the virus has been transmitted and that these distances have not been maintained ”, he pointed out.
In addition, Sileri assured that if there were more cases in Naples, as a doctor he would say that the best thing is to stop the championship for a week: "We have to act as we do with outbreaks."
