“There may be a breach that’s unbeknown to us and may have caused this positive test.” – Shuaib Manjra, CSA’s chief medical officer, after the first ODI was postponed in the wake of a player testing positive for Covid-19.
TELFORD VICE | Cape Town
CSA’s chief medical officer has admitted that the bio-bubble containing the South Africa and England squads could be faulty. And that that might have led to the single positive test for the coronavirus that forced the postponement of the first ODI at Newlands on Friday.
The match was called off two hours before it was due to start — some 12 hours after a South Africa player was confirmed to have contracted the disease — and rescheduled for Monday.
“This test surprised us because we have confidence in the integrity of the bio-secure environment,” Shuaib Manjra said in a video released by CSA on Friday. “Further tests indicate that this is a more recent infection that occurred within the bio-safe environment. Clearly there seems to be some kind of breach, which we’ve investigated in great detail to try and determine where this happened. We’ve traversed a couple of different spaces and tried to recount some events; speaking to the player, looking at security cameras, looking at other information. We haven’t been able, to date, to identify where that source was. But clearly it is cause for concern.
“I’m fairly convinced that 99% of the time this environment is working. There may be a breach that’s unbeknown to us and may have caused this positive test. So I’m not saying there’s a zero risk. There may be a slight risk which we cannot mitigate. There’s a lot of moving parts in a tour such as this, and we’re trying to control that.
Both squads and their support staff are staying at the same hotel, which has made England worry about the safety of their touring party. “Clearly, there’s a cause for concern and England has expressed a concern,” Manjra said. “England is questioning the confidence that they have in the bio-secure environment, and rightfully so. If there’s been a player who tested positive in the last week, who contracted the virus in the last week, they have cause for concern and we respect that concern.”
An ECB release quoted managing director Ashley Giles as saying: “Our number one priority is the health and safety of the England team and management group, and the correct decision was made following discussions between the two boards and respective medical teams.”
Cricbuzz has learnt that England were on their way to the ground when they were told of a suspected case of Covid-19 in the bio-bubble. Their bus turned around and they went back to the hotel, where confirmation that the game was off reached them shortly before CSA issued a statement to say so. England were given the day off but were confined to their rooms while communal areas of the hotel were deep cleaned.
Manjra rejected the notion that the South Africans had broken the bio-secure protocols: “I can categorically state that there’s no player who is able to leave the hotel environment, simply by virtue of the fact that there’s security around and the security will not allow a player a player to leave. Unless that player is leaving in an assigned vehicle, which is an official vehicle with an official driver.
“There’s command centre here led by the colonel from the Claremont police force, and they strictly enforce the bio-bubble. They wouldn’t allow anybody to leave. In fact, some of our players had left as a group to go across to the [Vineyard] Oval [across the road from the hotel] to train, and that became a matter of concern because [the police] had seen it. We had to address that concern with the colonel and the command centre. Basically, it is impossible to leave this bio-secure environment by any player or official.”
The ODI series will go ahead for now, starting with Sunday’s match in Paarl. The postponed game is scheduled for Newlands on Monday, and the third at the same venue on Wednesday.
“We’ve met with the English medical teams and we’ve planned out a way,” Manjra said. “We will retest all of our players and [the] hotel staff [on Saturday]. We’ll await the results and determine a course of action. On Tuesday, before the final ODI on Wednesday, we will test the team again.”
The latest positive test is the third among the South Africans since England arrived in the country. Two more of the home side’s players were forced to isolate because they had been in close contact with the first man to get the virus. None of England’s players or support staff have tested positive.
Additional reporting by Rob Johnston.
First published by Cricbuzz.
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