MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

52 cases of covid-19 detected so far at Copa America football tournament in Brazil

Cases were found in the delegations of Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia

Brazil's Health Ministry Tuesday reported a total of 52 cases of covid-19 had been detected through testing among delegations taking part in the Copa America football event.

After 3,045 RT-PCR tests among players, members of delegations and service providers, 52 turned out positive, it was reported, of which 33 were of players.

The Ministry also announced genetic sequencing tests were being performed to determine the variants in the confirmed cases. Results should be ready in two weeks.

The first team to experience an outbreak in Venezuela, where 13 cases were spotted after landing in the country for the opening game against Brazil. Five of them were players, which led the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) to change the rules and eliminate the limit of substitutions.

After the adjustment made by Conmebol, Venezuela summoned 15 new athletes for the competition. Cases were also found in the delegations of Bolivia, Peru and Colombia.

Amid criticism for the high number of deaths (more than 488,000) and infections (close to 18 million) the government of Jair Bolsonaro ignored the advice of specialists and decided to go ahead with the event in Brazil after Argentina and Colombia declined to host it.