16 players, staff of Tanzanian women football team test positive for COVID-19

By Kwanta Douglas –

At least 11 players and five members of the technical bench of Tanzania’s under-20 women national football team have tested positive for COVID-19, the east African nation’s football federation said on Saturday night.

The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) said in a statement that the Tanzania’s U20 women national football team called Tanzanite tested positive for the virus in Burundi where they had gone for a return match with the Burundian counterparts seeking qualification for the World Cup.

The statement said the results of the tests for COVID-19 were released on Saturday while the players were on the football pitch ready for the game against their Burundian counterparts.

The statement said procedures stated that results for COVID-19 tests were supposed to be released two hours before a game to allow affected teams to pick other players.

According to the statement, the players underwent rapid tests on Friday when they arrived in the Burundian capital Bujumbura and all tested negative.

They were tested again on Friday night and the results that were released minutes before the game began showed that 11 players and five members of the technical bench tested positive.

The statement did not say whether the positive test results were related to the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron.