ZHANGJIAKOU (Nettavisen): On Saturday morning, the Swedish Ski Association announces in a press release that cross-country skier Leo Johansson has been quarantined after testing positive for covid-19 on arrival in China.
Johansson traveled with the flight from Oslo to Beijing where also Danish and Norwegian Olympic athletes from several different branches were on board.
The online newspaper was also on the same flight with two journalists.
– A boring message for Leo and for the squad, but no one else on the cross-country national team has tested positive on arrival, says the Swedes’ squad leader Peter Reinebo in a statement.
Also read: Program for OL i Beijing
Became ill before the Olympics
Johansson was infected with the coronavirus already two weeks ago, but still chose to get on the plane with the other athletes on Thursday night Norwegian time.
He did so after testing negatively six times on PCR tests at home in Sweden.
Upon arrival in China, however, he again tested positive for covid-19. Johansson took a new test on Saturday, but this was also positive.
The Swedish support apparatus believes the positive tests are due to his previous case of infection from earlier this month. Despite the test results in China, the Swedish medical team believes that Johansson is not contagious.
However, the rules during the Beijing Olympics are crystal clear and Johansson is now not allowed to return from quarantine until he has delivered two negative corona samples at 24-hour intervals.
National team manager Anders Byström despairs over the situation.
– Of course it is not a pleasant situation and we all support Leo in this and hope that he will soon get out of isolation. It is a tough message to get during his first Olympics and he is disappointed, but with good courage, says Byström.
Also read: Klæbo back in Norway. Traveled by private plane
Close contacts on the plane
Johansson sat on the plane with several national team colleagues.
The Swedish Ski Association states that Marcus Grate and Calle Halfvarsson are now defined as close contacts.
The two may continue to train and compete as normal, but must now follow extra strict infection control rules to be allowed to be in the Olympic bubble.
This includes testing twice a day for a week.
So far, no Norwegian close contacts have been reported to Johansson.
The Beijing Olympics start on February 4. The online newspaper is already in place in China and comes with daily updates from the Olympics.
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