Half of the teams playing the Copa America have reported coronavirus cases with Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru and Chile confirming at least one positive test on Thursday.
CONMEBOL said cases of people with COVID-19 at the Copa America in Brazil have risen to 65, a rise from the number of known infections of 53 on Wednesday.
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19 people are on the 10 tournament teams, and 46 are staffers and officials, according to CONMEBOL. There have been 5,458 tests so far.
Brazil stepped in late as an emergency host despite the country having the second highest number of recorded deaths from the coronavirus in the world, more than 493,000.
Also on Thursday, the Bolivian Football Association said two players tested positive, defender Oscar Ribera and forward Jaume Cuellar. Bolivian striker Marcelo Martins, who used his Instagram account to criticize CONMEBOL for the COVID-19 cases, backtracked in a statement.
“Regrettably my concern for my situation contracting COVID-19, which stopped me from playing with my beloved national team at their first match at Copa America… was incorrectly interpreted by those who manage my public communications,” Martins wrote.
Chile’s team also said one of its members was diagnosed with the virus, was without symptoms, and isolated, but did not provide more details.
On Monday, one of the Peru squad’s fitness coaches tested positive for COVID-19 in Lima but it was not clear whether he was counted by Brazil’s health ministry as one of the confirmed cases related to the tournament.
Over the weekend, Colombia said technical assistant Pablo Roman and physiotherapist Carlos Entrena had also tested positive for the virus. Venezuela was forced to summon 15 new players for the squad at short notice after eight tested positive upon arrival in Brazil last week. Three additional members of Venezuela’s coaching staff also tested positive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
