Premier League records 103 new COVID-19 cases over last week

The Premier League have been experiencing troubles conducting all their holiday fixtures over the week due to a surge in Covid-19 cases spread across several clubs amongst their players and staff. Three fixtures that were scheduled for Boxing Day were called off due to outbreaks at the clubs involved with two further matches now being postponed on December 28th as fear grows amidst the increase in cases over the past week.

 The Premier League has now confirmed that a record 103 positive Covid-19 cases were found amongst players and staff in the league in the last week. This is the highest recorded number in the Premier League this season with the number being only 90 from the previous round of testing. Several managers have called on the league to push reforms on the existing format of the competition as the integrity of the competition looks to be threatened with the rise in Covid-19 cases.

“The safety of everyone is a priority and the Premier League is taking all precautionary steps in response to the impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The league has reverted to its emergency measures, and has increased testing of players and club staff to daily lateral flow and twice-weekly PCR tests, having previously carried out lateral-flow testing twice a week. The league can today confirm that between Monday 20 December and Sunday 26 December, 15,186 COVID-19 tests were administered on players and club staff. Of these, there were 103 new positive cases,” the Premier League said in a statement.