Six Premier League players or staff from three clubs test positive for Covid-19
19 May 2020, 17:13
Six individuals connected to three Premier League clubs have tested positive for coronavirus.
The announcement came today as sides returned to small group training for the first time since lockdown.
The Covid-19 tests were conducted on Sunday and Monday as part of the league's partnership with the Prenetics consortium, and are due to take place twice a week from now on.
It means that forty tests will be carried out at each club in each session.
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The league said in a statement: "The Premier League can today confirm that on Sunday 17 May and Monday 18 May, 748 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, six have tested positive from three clubs.
"Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days.
"The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency.
"No specific details as to clubs or individuals will be provided by the League and results will be made public in this way after each round of testing."
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It comes as clubs began taking their first steps of a comeback to training involves small groups of up to five players working together, while practising social distancing, with sessions to last no more than 75 minutes for any one player.
The 20 top-flight clubs unanimously agreed the protocols for small group training to resume and will gather again on May 26 to discuss protocols for contact training.
June 12 has been mentioned as a resumption date, but the league's chief executive Richard Masters has said that was only ever to be treated as a "staging post".
Premier League clubs will be subjected to spot-checks to ensure they are complying with training protocols, while the league has also committed to making every positive Covid-19 test public knowledge.
