The main sticking point over the Serie A medical protocol is what happens if a player tests positive for COVID-19, as Italy and Germany have contrasting approaches.
The Italian Government’s scientific committee rejected the protocol put forward by the FIGC, considering it ‘insufficient,’ so negotiations are in progress to modify it.
According to Sky Sport Italia, the biggest issue up for debate is what to do if and when a player tests positive.
The main sticking point over the Serie A medical protocol is what happens if a player tests positive for COVID-19, as Italy and Germany have contrasting approaches.
The Italian Government’s scientific committee rejected the protocol put forward by the FIGC, considering it ‘insufficient,’ so negotiations are in progress to modify it.
According to Sky Sport Italia, the biggest issue up for debate is what to do if and when a player tests positive.
The Italian authorities want the player isolated for 14 days, but also anyone he came into contact with, which would effectively end their season.
On the other hand, Germany is already looking at this aspect, because three Koln players tested positive yesterday.
The Bundesliga protocol considers simply isolating the player and more direct contacts rather than the whole team.
“They and all of the people, who come under the definition from the Robert-Koch-Institute as Contact Person Category 1, will now go into a two-week quarantine,” explained FC Koln team doctor Paul Klein.
“That is all the people who have a high-risk of infection, because they live in the same house, for example. That could also mean that they have been in direct contact with bodily fluids of the affected persons, in a roughly 15-minute period, direct conversation without the necessary social distancing. Those people must, in order to break the infection chain, also go into quarantine.”
That does not include teammates or other members of staff, nor is training seen as an increased risk of infection.
“The prerequisite for this is, of course, that now that we have started testing, we continue to test consistently, thus ensuring that only those who have tested negatively are part of training. We then know who carries the virus and who does not. That is exactly the idea behind the DFL’s medical concept.”