Ipswich Town confirm seven Covid cases are new variant and back ‘football circuit breaker’

Ipswich Town have confirmed that seven staff members, including manager Paul Lambert and five first-team players, have all tested positive for the new variant of Covid-19, with their club physio backing calls for a ‘football circuit-breaker’ to prevent the situation across the English Football League (EFL) spiralling out of control.

Ipswich were forced to postpone their League One fixtures against Northampton Town and AFC Wimbledon over the coming week after recording six positive tests on Sunday. The club has now confirmed that general manager of football operations, Lee O’Neill, has become the seventh staff member to test positive, with all showing to have contracted the new mutated version of the virus that has triggered a sizeable increase in cases across the country.

The decision to call off their festive fixtures until the games can be safely played has added to a backlog of fixtures for the EFL to reschedule, with Millwall and Rotherham United forced to postpone games in the Championship and Sunderland, Bristol Rovers and Shrewsbury Town required to do the same in League One, along with League Two’s Stevenage and Exeter City.

With the new variant of coronavirus already infecting Ipswich players, physio Matt Byard has given his support for football to be stopped until the pandemic can be brought back under control - something that would see the sport halted over the festive period in scenes similar to that of the first lockdown period earlier this year - because he believes the squad were passed on the virus in a match capacity, rather than any breach of coronavirus protocol.

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“I have looked at every avenue and the only scenario for transmission has to be our match against Burton last week and because it seems to have been passed on in a matchday environment, it is confirmation of a new development,” Byard said. “We still have stringent protocols in place in terms of use of the dressing-rooms, I might add.

“This new strain of the virus clearly transmits far quicker than the original Covid strain and we have the data and symptom profile that confirms that is what we are dealing with here.

“We have tested all the playing and coaching staff and from the results, we can detect the level of infection and see the patterns emerging, however it’s the speed of the transmission that tells us it’s the new strain.

“We will be re-testing all the staff on Wednesday who have previously tested negative and I do have concerns that there will be more positive cases. It’s important to recognise the timing of testing is absolutely crucial in determining the diagnosis.  A wrongly timed test can very likely produce a false result. We have to very closely determine potential transmission risks and consider the period of incubation before becoming infectious.

“We have been complimented by the EFL for the procedures we have had in place at the training ground and on matchday - and that is one of the reasons they have become very concerned over the latest developments.

“I know the EFL are looking at bringing in extra measures, with maybe more testing for example. I have always supported routine testing to secure a return to playing programme. Personally, with so many clubs affected by this presently and this new strain development, football may benefit from a ‘circuit breaker’ before a return to playing securely.”

Byard added that the measures that were put into place for the return of football during the summer remain in force at the club, although they have been left with no option than to close their training ground until they reduce the number of positive Covid-19 cases.

Previously, the club had received two positive Covid-19 tests since the start of the pandemic, but the sudden increase in numbers if cause for concern for the club at what could yet happen.

“In previous cases at clubs, the confirmatory source can normally be isolated down to a coach journey or a lengthy meeting indoors,” he added. “We however, have had the same protocols in place since we started pre-season training.

“The players are still arriving to training in kit, training and then going straight home. No showers are in use, no canteen where they eat communally. If you consider a staged return to normal behaviour at the training ground in five phases, then we are at the beginning of phase two.

“We have only had two cases here in nine months (Kayden Jackson and Matt Gill) so to get seven in one week is alarming.”