One day before the opening game of the Copa America in Brazil, twelve members of the Venezuelan soccer delegation (players and coaches) tested positive for the corona virus. This was reported by the Brazilian newspaper “Folha de Sao Paulo” on Saturday, citing the health department of the capital district of Brasilia.
According to this, all those affected are asymptomatic, isolated in single rooms and are being monitored by the team from the South American Football Association (Conmebol) and the health secretariat. In Brasilia, Venezuela is set to play host and defending champion Brazil around superstar Neymar at the start of the prestigious tournament on Sunday.
Tomas Rincon (Torino) had not traveled to Brazil before. The captain felt uncomfortable and showed symptoms of a viral disease, it said in a message from the national team on Twitter on Friday. The medical department and the coaching staff had agreed to keep the player in isolation in Caracas as a preventive measure and to await developments.
A few weeks before the start of the tournament, first Colombia and then Argentina dropped out as the host. In Colombia there have been bloody protests against the government for weeks, Argentina was hit hard by the second wave of the corona pandemic.
The South American Football Association (Conmebol) then moved the South American Championship to Brazil, which led to widespread criticism. In Brazil, a state with a population of 210 million, more than 17 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and around 485,000 people have died in connection with Covid-19. The Copa America should take place without an audience.
