Premier League find two more positive coronavirus tests, taking total to eight

Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi in training after the Premier League announced players can return to training in small groups. He was the first Premier League player to test positive. Chelsea FC/Getty

Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi leaves the club's Cobham training ground. PA

N'Golo Kante . EPA

Andreas Christensen. EPA

Ross Barkley. PA

Tammy Abraham. EPA

Chelsea's Kepa Arrizabalaga leaves training. EPA

Billy Gilmour after the training session. EPA

Willy Caballero. EPA

Chelsea's Marcos Alonso. EPA

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard leaves training. EPA

Chelsea's Willian after training. EPA

Chelsea's Mason Mount. EPA

Reece James leaves training. EPA

Chelsea's Ruben Loftus-Cheek. EPA

Chelsea's Pedro leaves training. EPA

Chelsea's Olivier Giroud leaves training. EPA

Two more people from two separate clubs have returned positive tests for the coronavirus, the Premier League said on Saturday, taking the total to eight since the league began testing players and staff.

"The Premier League can today confirm that on Tuesday 19 May, Thursday 21 May and Friday 22 May, 996 players and club staff were tested for Covid-19. Of these, two have tested positive from two clubs," the statement said.

"The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency. Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days."

Bournemouth later announced one of their players has tested positive for coronavirus.

A total of 748 tests of players and club staff made up the initial round of testing on May 17-18. Watford's Adrian Mariappa and two members of the club's non-playing staff and Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan were among six positive tests.

They are all still in their seven-day isolation period.

Two other Watford players are also self-isolating after coming into close contact with people who tested positive, according to manager Nigel Pearson.

No matches have been played in the Premier League since March, but the government has given the green light for elite sport to resume from June 1, including the top-flight football.

The Premier League's "Project Restart" hopes to resume action in June, although no date has been fixed.

Another round of tests are scheduled to take place on Monday and Tuesday. All 20 clubs will hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide whether they can move to phase two of the restart and allow full-contact training.

Chief executive Richard Masters said on Friday the Premier League is "as confident as we can be" about a resumption of the top flight and that the remaining 92 games would be completed.

"We wouldn't have taken the first step to get back to training if we weren't convinced we had created a very safe environment for our players," he said.

Britain's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is the highest in Europe with an official figure of 36,675 as of Saturday.

Germany's Bundesliga returned to action last week with matches in empty stadiums and strict safety protocols.

Spain's government on Saturday gave the go-ahead for La Liga to resume from June 8.