England camp given all-clear after retesting

TWO members of England’s touring party in South Africa who returned ‘unconfirmed positives’ for Covid-19 over the weekend have been given the all-clear after independent analysis of follow-up tests.

The news confirms England’s initial belief the pair, understood to be one player and one of the backroom team, had received ‘false positives’ and means they will no longer be obliged to observe a ten-day hotel quarantine in Cape Town and will join the rest of the squad ahead of tomorrow’s planned departure from the aborted tour.

The England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief medical officer Professor Nick Peirce oversaw the situation remotely and issued a statement. It read: ‘Following the independent ratification of the two unconfirmed positive Covid-19 tests from the England camp in South Africa, the ECB can confirm that, following further testing and analysis, in the opinion of the independent virologists based in Cape Town and London, the two individuals are not infected and do not pose any risk of passing on the infection to the rest of the party.

‘As such, they are now free to join the rest of the group and are no longer self-isolating.’

The negative tests may lead to questions over whether the oneday series, which was officially abandoned on Monday, could have gone ahead.

But England made it clear events of recent days – which also saw the South Africa side record their third positive result of the trip as well as two cases among venue staff – undermined confidence in the environment.