Premiership rugby reports just two new virus cases after results error

LONDON: The English Premiership on Thursday reported only two cases of coronavirus from its latest round of testing following an error by technicians.

An operator issue at Randox Health's laboratory meant the number of positive cases reported to clubs on Tuesday was incorrect.

Randox, after discovering the mistake, updated its results with the correct figure.

Thursday's announcement came two days after players and staff at Bath entered selfisolation after being informed of an outbreak at the club's Recreation Ground. Their training ground was also deep cleaned.

"This issue has created disruption at our clubs and especially at Bath Rugby, who had isolated a number of players and temporarily closed their training ground after receiving their results early on Tuesday morning," said Premiership Rugby Limited director of rugby Phil Winstanley.

Bath, in a separate statement issued later Thursday, said they had been informed of the error on Wednesday when they were told that, following routine retesting, 18 of the original 19 positive results were in fact negative.

The club added that they would arrange for further independent testing for players and staff as an additional precaution.

They now plan to reopen their training ground next week but full-contact training will only resume on Tuesday when both the independent Public Health England test results and a further round of testing from Randox have been completed.

Bath's Premiership match away to local rivals Bristol remains set to go ahead as scheduled a week on Friday.

"We have worked closely with Public Health England who are clear that this was a specific instance of human error by Randox and not a wider outbreak," said Bath chief executive Tarquin McDonald.

"It is a huge and welcome relief to understand that this was a false alarm."