Positive tests won’t mean team quarantine
GAA TEAMS will not have to go into collective quarantine in the event of individual members testing positive for Covid-19. The GAA’s Project Throw-in will likely receive another boost in the coming days when the Government is expected to advise that players who come into contact with a Covid-19infected team-mate be deemed casual contacts. A casual contact is required to monitor themselves for symptoms over a 14-day period but does not have to self-isolate. This is unlike a close contact who is required to self-isolate. Had GAA players been deemed close contacts it could have seen teams forced to withdraw from competition if faced with collective quarantine — especially given the condensed nature of the fixture schedule.
That threat has dissipated, according to Feargal McGill, the GAA’s director of games and player welfare, who spoke to 4,000 club representatives on a web seminar on Tuesday night. ‘The likelihood, and we are awaiting clarification from Government, is that, in the sporting context outdoors, anyone you have been training with will be deemed a casual contact as opposed to a close contact. ‘It is an important distinction. We do think it is likely that people will be deemed casual contacts in a sporting context and they would not have to selfisolate,’ McGill told club representatives. If so, the Government’s position will be in keeping with the norm in Europe, where already in soccer, only players who have tested positive have been required to self-isolate, but
it will come as a relief, given that GAA is perceived as a more physical contact sport in nature. And the GAA have also reassured that the possibility of players getting infected with Covid-19 through playing and training equipment has now been deemed to be low risk. ‘The advisory group is satisfied the risk of transmission via equipment, in particular footballs and sliotars, is low,’ McGill told the meeting of club representatives. ‘It’s a very low risk. I think it’s very important to emphasise that point. ‘But football, sliotars and cones, if you are providing them, they should be sanitised. ‘It’s about minimising risk. Even though the risk is low, let’s try to make it even lower,’ he added. With the threat of infection deemed to be 19 times greater indoors than outdoors, the likelihood is that supporters, albeit at a reduced capacity, will be allowed to attend club games when they resume at the end of next month. ‘I know that’s an area of concern for people, will spectators be allowed to attend our games? ‘I suspect they will, but we haven’t received guidance on that from the Government yet,’ McGill told delegates. It was also confirmed at Tuesday’s meeting that GAA clubs, who are not due back in action until July 31, will be allowed to partake in challenge games from July 20.