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Number of cases rose from two to five
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Fear of more being testing positive after a ‘doomed meeting’
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Did one ‘positive case’ breach the Hambantota ‘bubble’?
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Was it an ‘SLC positive’ who infected Moeen Ali?
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Top-brass officials await their PCR results while staying in a leading Colombo hotel
The England Test squad arrived at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport last Sunday (3)[/caption]
Affecting England tour?
On Monday (4), the England team announced its member Moeen Ali had tested positive for Covid-19. Interestingly, though, he has passed three PCR tests before leaving England.
The ongoing situation might have the potential to affect the two-match Test series slated to begin on Thursday (14) in Galle, an SLC source who is in the know of the development said on Friday (8).
Doomed SLC meeting
It is also learnt that many leading officials of SLC have attended one of its meetings before last Sunday (3) at the Maitland Place headquarters in Colombo, pertaining to the current England series, and that meeting has now become the “hot spot” where the feared virus has spread among many at the place.
This doomed meeting has also been attended by one of the leading officials of the SLC Tour Organising Committee who happened to be one of the first two positive cases to emerge from the place last Sunday.
The other positive case had been a medical doctor attached to the Sports Ministry. The two visited the Galle Cricket Stadium together before last Sunday, reportedly to observe the preparations for the forthcoming Test matches there.
Last Sunday’s pandemonium
After returning to Colombo, this Tour Organising Committee officer visited many departments of the SLC headquarters on 1 January to wish their staff for the New Year.
After this officer tested positive last Sunday, the situation created pandemonium as SLC higher-ups promptly closed the premises immediately requesting its employees to “work from home” and be “on call”.
Three more cases emerge
It was learnt on Friday (8) that another official who is attached to the Cricket Operations Department of the SLC tested positive after attending the said meeting.
Later, two of the staffers of his department too tested positive, raising the total number of cases to five by Friday.
Quarantining in a hotel
“There were many more leading board officials who were present in that meeting. Now all could be in a very uncertain mentality, understandably.
“Some of them are staying in a leading Colombo hotel allocated for quarantine. The PCR tests are done in a leading private hospital in Colombo. Some of their test reports are yet to come,” the SLC source added on Friday.
A liaison officer gone missing?
It is also learnt that a liaison officer for the England tour party has been in attendance at the said meeting and he had travelled to Hambantota alone after that.
He was immediately recalled after the situation suddenly erupted in Colombo on Sunday (3).
And Moeen Ali testing positive after last Sunday has raised many eyebrows because the player had tested negative before leaving England. Was he infected by a breach of the bubble here?
It is not known whether the aforementioned liaison officer tested positive or negative because he was not contactable even by Friday (8). At the same time, the PCR tests were also not 100% fool proof. Some tests were negative yet the case could have contacted the virus for many days. Were the tests in England done on Ali bound by such error?
Hambantota bubble breached?
Earlier in March last year, England left Sri Lanka midway during their Test series. What is beginning on Thursday (14) is the rearranged two-Test series that was postponed in March.
England had to leave another series midway due to coronavirus fears. That was before their ODI series in South Africa last month when an unexpected breach of the two teams’ bio-secure bubble following completion of their T20I series was experienced. The breach had resulted in a couple of England players testing positive for the virus.
If positive cases are to emerge in Hambantota and/or it becomes clear that “SLC contacts” have breached the bubble there resulting in such calamity, the future of the series might be in some doubt, the source further added.