English Premiership to drop routine COVID tests

LONDON : Routine COVID-19 tests are to be paused in England's Premiership and Championship with the focus only on players showing symptoms, the Professional Game Board (PGB) said on Wednesday.

Weekly testing has been the norm at elite level, but after extensive consultation with club medical teams, public health and independent medical experts, the rules are being relaxed.

"Following this extensive consultation, we are now able today to align more closely with national guidance and can reduce our testing to focus our testing on players or staff with COVID symptoms," Chris Booy, chair of the PGB, said in a statement.

"All players and staff will continue to be monitored by their medical teams for those symptoms with any testing requirements and positive cases still coordinated and managed by club medical teams."

The new testing protocols, which start with immediate effect, follow a continued downward trend in COVID-19 infections and hospitalisation rates in the UK.

"The latest evidence tells us that the risks are lower with the Omicron variant than they have been since the start of the pandemic," Booy said.

Figures released by the PGB show that the proportion of fully vaccinated players and staff across the Premiership is 97per cent and in the Championship 95per cent.

"One of the key factors in allowing us to move to symptomatic-only testing is the high rate of vaccination in the English game," Booy said. "These rates represent a remarkable achievement from players and staff."

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)