Bad news hours before the start of the Copa América in Brazilian territory. Twelve members of the Venezuelan delegation, including several players, tested positive for coronavirus in the first mandatory clinical test they were subjected to upon arrival in Brazil, official sources reported this Saturday.
The Brasilia Health Secretariat issued a statement in which it stated that on “Friday night it was notified by Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) that twelve members of the delegation of the Venezuelan national team, including players and technical commission, gave positive for covid-19 “.
Without detailing the number of infected players, the Secretariat pointed out that all those infected “are asymptomatic, isolated in individual rooms and observed by the medical team of Conmebol and the Center for Strategic Information on Health Surveillance (CIEVS)” of the Brazilian capital .
The Secretary of Health of the Federal District of Brasilia, Osnei Okumoto, had told journalists this Saturday that the results of the RT-PCR to which the members of the Venezuelan team were subjected yielded a positive result for ten people, who were again evaluated with the same test this Saturday.
Before the trip, midfielder Tomás Rincón, from the Italian Torino and one of the most important players in the vinotinto squad, presented a “physical discomfort”, with “probable viral symptoms”, although the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) did not report whether It was about coronavirus.
Also Wílker Ángel and Rolf Feltscher were replaced from the list of 28 players called up by Portuguese coach José Peseiro for the Copa América for having tested positive for covid-19 in the Qualifiers. Okumoto also indicated that a team of health prosecutors has already been tracking since Friday night who the infected had contact with after arriving on a chartered plane from Caracas.
FIRST DOSE VACCINATED SELECTION The tests were carried out by the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) and the result was delivered to those responsible for the delegation on Friday night in Brasilia, although Okumoto indicated that they were probably infected in Venezuela before embarking for Brazil.
The Venezuelan team, as published with videos and photos on its page and social networks, vaccinated its entire delegation before the trip to Brazil, although most barely received the first dose of the coronavac vaccine, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac.
The names of those infected were not released, but Conmebol announced that as a result of this situation and others that may arise in the rest of the teams, the clause of limiting a maximum of five changes in the player registration list has been repealed, which is now open and without limit during the tournament.
Venezuela and Brazil will open on Sunday at the Mané Garrincha stadium in Brasilia, in a match for Group B, the current edition of the oldest national team tournament in the world, which ended up in the South American giant after Colombia, due to public order problems, and Argentina, due to the pandemic, desist from it.
The acceptance of hosting the tournament by Brazil unleashed a wave of criticism of the Government of the president, Jair Bolsonaro, for receiving the competition in the midst of a still uncontrolled situation of the covid-19 pandemic, which in fifteen months accumulates almost 17.3 million confirmed cases and 485,000 deaths.
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