Last Updated on 5 years ago by Charbel Coorey
High alert as Adelaide experiences early COVID-19 outbreak | Adelaide, the city to host the AUS vs IND D/N Test, has seen a sharp increase in COVID cases
Adelaide, the city to host the first ever Day/Night Test between Australia and India, is on high alert after early signs of a COVID-19 outbreak.
After weeks without any community transmission, a new cluster of 17 COVID-19 cases in Adelaide’s northern suburbs has seen hundreds of people arrive at pop-up testing clinics. This cluster is reportedly linked to a hotel quarantine issue, where a staff member at one of the hotels infected family members. As a result, authorities are scrambling to get contact-tracing underway, as supermarkets, restaurants and schools have been host to infected community members.
Victoria and Queensland are two of the first states to announce Adelaide as a COVID-19 hotspot, with their borders to be closed to South Australia.
Cricket Australia (CA) will need to keep a close eye on developments. New South Wales, where matches in the limited-overs series between Australia and India will take place, currently has its borders open to South Australia. But, this can change in an instant if cases continue to rise in Adelaide, which can present a serious challenge as the first match of the Test series to begin in the city of churches on December 17.
State players, who participated in the Sheffield Shield in Adelaide recently, are required to self-isolate back home (except the New South Wales team). The Indian team arrived in Australia a few days ago and have begun training whilst in quarantine in Sydney. If New South Wales does end up considering Adelaide as a COVID-19 hotspot, then CA will need to quickly determine the actions forward for the Day/Night Test.
Depending on Adelaide’s COVID-19 situation in the coming days, CA may have to work with government authorities on whether the Indian and Australian teams can travel to Adelaide, whether they will need to quarantine for a certain amount of time as well as whether the match needs to be played behind closed doors.
