South Africa mystified by Covid-19 positive test as England express "concern"

Players will be tested on Saturday (December 5) and again next week as the bio-secure environment containing both teams is called into question

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England's tour of South Africa hinges on the results of a full retesting of all players for Covid-19 before the rescheduled first one-day international on Sunday (December 6).

The three-match 50-over series was scheduled to get underway on Friday (December 4) but was postponed less than an hour before the start due to a positive test within the Proteas squad.

Though the tourists are said to be concerned by the development, managing director of men's cricket Ashley Giles remains "optimistic" the second half of the tour can be completed.

All players and staff will be tested on Saturday (December 5), with the results crucial to the remaining fixtures in Paarl and Cape Town going ahead.

"There is a cause for concern and England has expressed a concern. England are questioning the confidence they have in the bio-secure environment and rightfully so," Cricket South Africa's chief medical officer Dr Shuaib Manjra told the media.

"If there has been a player who tested positive in the last week, they have cause for concern and we respect that concern. We met with the English medical team and we have planned out a way. 

"We will retest all players and hotel staff tomorrow. We will await the results and determine a course of action and then on Tuesday before the final ODI we will retest the team again."

"I am fairly convinced that 99% of the time this environment is working. There may be a breach that is unbeknown to us"

Two South Africa players tested positive for coronavirus before the T20 series while several others were put into isolation having come into close contact. A third was picked up on Thursday after a routine batch of tests on the eve of the first ODI.

Central to the concerns expressed by England surround how the positive test could have occurred in a bio-secure environment. Manjra has suggested a breach could have taken place having admitted the bubble has been faultless only "99% of the time".

"This test surprised us because we have confidence in the integrity of the bio-secure environment," Manjra said. "Further tests indicate that this is a more recent case that occurred within the bio-secure environment. So clearly there seems to be some kind of breach which we have investigated in great detail to try and determined where this happened.

"We have traversed a couple of different spaces, trying to recount some of the events: speaking to the player, looking at security cameras, looking at other information and we haven't been able to date to identify where the source was but clearly it's cause for concern."

He added: "I am fairly convinced that 99% of the time this environment is working. There may be a breach that is unbeknown to us. I am not saying there is zero risk. There may be a slight risk. There are a lot of moving parts in a tour such as this and we are trying to control that."

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