Olympics-Czech beach volleyball player tests positive for COVID-19

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic has returned a positive COVID-19 test at the Games Village in Tokyo, the country’s Olympic Committee said on Monday.

On Saturday, the team had said a staff member had tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Tokyo on a charter flight from Prague.

“Unfortunately, beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic has a positive finding from a sample taken during daily testing in the Olympic village on Sunday,” Martin Doktor, sports director of the Czech Olympic Committee, said in a statement.

“It is still fresh information and everything is evolving quickly. We are solving details, including the sport impact.”

Perusic, 26, was due to play his first match on July 26, which the team said was now unlikely due to isolation requirements.

Postponed for a year due to the global pandemic, the Games are being held mostly without spectators and under tight quarantine rules. Most athletes are starting to arrive for the Olympics, which run from July 23 through Aug. 8.

Earlier Tokyo 2020 sponsor Toyota will not run Olympics-related TV commercials amid lacklustre public support for the Olympics, with two-thirds of Japanese doubting organisers can keep the Games safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local media poll.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet;Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Reuters