Vasco da Gama announce 16 players test positive for coronavirus

Rio de Janeiro club tested 350 members of staff, including players and coaches

The Vasco da Gama team prior to a match against Botafogo in June, 2019. The Brazilian club reported on Monday that 16 players have tested positive for the coronavirus. Getty Images

Brazilian club Vasco da Gama have revealed that 16 players have tested positive for the coronavirus in what is sure to be a setback to hopes of starting the league season by the end of June.

The club from Rio de Janeiro tested 350 members of staff, including players and coaches, Vasco's medical director Marcos Teixeira said in a video on the team's YouTube channel on Sunday.

"We found 16 athletes with positive test results. They were separated from the group, they remain in medical contact and they will be tested until we are sure that they cannot transmit the virus to the rest of the squad," said Teixeira.

He said that around 30 per cent of those tested "were previously in contact with the novel coronavirus," including three players.

Brazil has recorded more than half a million cases and over 29,000 deaths from Covid-19, while there have been more than 211,000 recoveries in the South American nation. It is second only to the United States in terms of confirmed cases and fourth globally when it comes to deaths.

Vasco are one of several teams to have restarted training after two months of lockdown, despite little sign that Brazil is over the worst of its coronavirus outbreak.

Vasco's president Alexandre Campello and Flamengo counterpart Rodolfo Landim met with Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro two weeks ago to discuss the resumption of football.

The Brazilian football authorities had previously stated their ambitions to start the Serie A season by the end of June, a target supported by the Rio de Janeiro government.

"The understanding is for the adoption of a security protocol. In this initial phase the clubs can only do physiotherapy, work on rehabilitating the players' muscles [and] physiotherapy with the ball," Rio mayor Marcelo Crivella said.

"As for collective training and games, it was established these will be permitted only from the start of June."