Costa Rica federation moves to clear the air

The Costa Rica Football Federation has issued a response to reports that two players who tested positive for COVID-19 played in their Concacaf World Cup qualifying game against Jamaica on Wednesday at the National Stadium.

As first reported by The Gleaner, Jamaica Football Federation medical committee chairman, Dr Guyan Arscott, confirmed Wednesday night that six members of the delegation, including three players, tested positive for the virus. Additionally, he said of the three players that tested positive, two played in the game which Costa Rica won 1-0.

In its statement released today, the Costa Rican federation said one player and three members of their delegation tested positive as "new cases" Wednesday afternoon following their PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) tests upon arrival on the island on Tuesday night. They said that all members of the delegation had tested negative in Mexico on Monday.

The federation said that two players who recently recovered from COVID-19 also tested positive.

"In these tests, one player and three administrative staff of the delegation were positive as new cases, in addition, two soccer players recently recovered from COVID-19 and those who had tested positive in mid-January. "The new positives were immediately isolated and, as indicated by the protocol, these results were communicated to the FIFA delegation and the local authorities. At the same time, all the documentation was presented proving that the other two players who scored positive were recovered cases with less than 25 days of having had a positive result for COVID-19. Therefore, based on existing regulations and based on the documentation presented by the Costa Rican Soccer Federation, both FIFA and CONCACAF authorised the participation of said players," the statement read.

The release went further to say that while the JFF medical commission recommended that the players not participate, the request did not come from a recognised source.

"Once the first half of the match against the Jamaicans had passed, the officials of the Medical Commission of the Jamaican Football Federation stated that they recommended that the players not participate. This position did not come from any health authority in the country or from a soccer authority."

"The case of the two asymptomatic players who recently recovered from COVID-19 was explained to said representatives, including the laboratory results that showed cycle threshold data that proved to be recovered cases and with a low viral load. For this reason, both players travelled normally with the delegation that returned to the national territory this Thursday morning."

JFF president Michael Ricketts says a report has been sent to FIFA on the matter.