The COVID-19 outbreak within the Italian national team risks to paralyze Serie A. Over the last ten days, 19 people that were part of the contingent have tested positive. Seven of them are players: Leonardo Bonucci, Marco Verratti, Alessandro Florenzi, Vincenzo Grifo, Salvatore Sirigu and Alessio Cragno. The two goalkeepers were added to the list Monday, Repubblica reports, while Juventus announced Federico Bernardeschi’s positivity today.
Four staffers, including Daniele De Rossi and Gianluca Vialli, were found to have contracted Coronavirus while in Vilnius, four more and three federal executives after heading back to Italy. The tally says that 25 percent of 80-man delegation caught it.
While everybody followed the strict regulations, having meals together increases the risk of getting infected. Bonucci, Verratti and Sirigu were sitting at the same table, alongside Gianluigi Donnarumma and Lorenzo Insigne.
Since COVID takes different times to manifest itself, 14 teams are on edge, waiting for the latest results of the exams. Each of the 30 people that were on the flight home from Lithuania tested negative right before boarding the plane, but Bonucci turned positive upon returning.
The officials are trying to figure out when the cluster got started, whether in the retreat in Parma or in Sofia. One staff member begun showing some symptoms in Bulgaria and was immediately isolated, but it did not stop the spread. Sassuolo was the only team to excluded its Italian internationals, Gian Marco Ferrari and Manuel Locatelli, as a precautionary measure, while the others took the field Saturday. Poland and Turkey also had to deal with a similar situations.