Professor Enrico Castellacci has asked the Government to lower the 14-day quarantine period to seven days in light of improving COVID-19 figures around Italy.
As per the current medical protocol, the entire squad has to go into a 14-day training retreat if just one member of the team or staff tests positive for COVID-19.
The individual who tests positive must be isolated entirely for 14 days, while the others can continue to train, albeit with social distancing, and remaining in the training retreat.
Professor Enrico Castellacci has asked the Government to lower the 14-day quarantine period to seven days in light of improving COVID-19 figures around Italy.
As per the current medical protocol, the entire squad has to go into a 14-day training retreat if just one member of the team or staff tests positive for COVID-19.
The individual who tests positive must be isolated entirely for 14 days, while the others can continue to train, albeit with social distancing, and remaining in the training retreat.
“The current protocol regarding quarantine is very rigid and the concept of a 14-day quarantine risks blocking the whole Serie A season,” warned Castellacci on Radio Punto Nuovo.
He is the President of the Italian Association of Football Medics and a member of the FIGC’s medical advisory team that helped draw up the protocol.
“My proposal was to evaluate bringing the quarantine period down to seven days. This is the same method adopted by the Bundesliga, so it is entirely plausible.
“The closer we get to Serie A games resuming, the more the fear builds that one out of 300 people per game could have COVID-19 and grind everything to a halt.
“Football is an important industry for this country and it was the Government’s duty to get it restarted, but it’s also only right they allow it to reach a natural conclusion,” added Castellacci.
Coronavirus is increasingly localised in Italy, with 99 out of 202 new cases over the last 24 hours occurring in Lombardy.
The good news is that there were eight regions with zero new cases today and 16 regions who had under five additional patients.
Out of 62,699 swabs taken since yesterday, only 202 tested positive, an average of 0.32 per cent.