A revised COVID-19 protocol has received the seal of approval by Serie A and all interested parties. The Italian Football Association, and the other sporting federations, agreed to it in a meeting with the government a few days ago. The technical-scientifical committee, which handles the pandemic-related regulations, greenlighted it today, Calcio e Finanza reports.
The new document will homogenize the norms across the whole country. Teams have been subjected to the decisions by local health authorities up until this point. The situation created notable differences. Some teams got on the pitch while having ten plus cases. Others had to quarantine with two or three.
According to the new COVID-19 guidelines, Serie A clubs, and sports teams in general, will halt every activity if 35 percent of the squad gets infected. The technical staff is no longer part of the equation. When there are fewer cases, players can continue to practice and feature in matches regardless of their vaccination status. However, they can not make contact with outside people. It is the same so-called soft isolation that was implemented in the past two seasons, Eurosport informs. There will be a round of rapid tests four hours before every game.
The expectation is that fixtures will be postponed beforehand when there are large outbreaks and no longer initially forfeited as it has been the case so far. The previous Serie A protocol, which was hastily approved during the COVID-19 surge in early January, said that sides had to compete if they had 13 players and at least one goalkeeper available, including youngsters.