Germany has opened the Bundesliga earlier this month and with plans to start the competitive soccer on May 16th but the plans might have a spanner in the works. The entire team of second tier Dynamo Dresden were placed in a two-week quarantine following two positive coronavirus tests.
Dresden who were scheduled to play Hannover 96 next Sunday in their game back following the decision to end all games and social functions in Germany caused by the coronavirus. The league has drawn up a detailed set of regulations and guidelines for training and matches in order to reduce to the minimum possible the risk of transmitting the virus, including stringent testing.
“On Friday, May 8, 2020, the third test series for ‘Covid-19’ of all second division squads, including the coaching and supervisory staff of SG Dynamo Dresden, took place as scheduled. After evaluating all laboratory samples, it was clear on Saturday that there were two new corona cases at SGD,” Dresden explained in a statement published on the club’s official website. “The affected players have been medically normal in the past few days and are currently still symptom-free.”
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However, the question of how to respond to positive tests is out of the hands of the league as German law states any response to cases is a matter for the local health authority. The league had been on hold since mid-March because of the coronavirus outbreak which has brought football to a standstill around the world and Germany’s progress is being closely watched by other leagues so as to determine if it is a wise decision to hold other such events, even in the world. The German Football League (DFL) has already registered 10 positive cases in a blanket test of 1,724 players and staff at its 36 first and second division clubs.
The emergence of positive cases has spelled doom as the idea of teammates playing brings about the question of coronavirus in sports, in that now other payers might not want to participate and this could be putting a lot of people at risk of infection. At a press conference on Thursday, the DFL informed the public that SG Dynamo Dresden would resume the season on May 17th with an away game at Hannover 96. Due to the quarantine measures, the SGD will not be able to travel to Lower Saxony for the away game on Match day 26 as planned.
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