Valencia hit hard by coronavirus with ten players and 15 members of staff testing positive for killer bug

VALENCIA have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic with ten players and 15 staff members reportedly testing positive for the deadly bug.

Defender Ezequiel Garay was the first LaLiga player to contract the deadly bug, two weeks ago.

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Valencia have had 25 cases of coronavirus within the club according to reports, including ten playersCredit: EPA

Team-mates Eliaquim Mangala and Jose Gaya soon followed with positive tests of their own.

And by March 16 the club had nine confirmed cases, with 35 per cent of the squad catching the virus.

Now according to Radio Marca via Italian journalist Tancredi Palmeri, that figure has shot up to 25 across the players and staff.

Valencia last played a match on March 10 – the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Atalanta.

The game went ahead at the Mestalla in front of an empty stadium as the Spaniards crashed out 8-4 on aggregate.

But it was the first leg which caused mass controversy.

On February, more than 44,000 people travelled to the Atalanta vs Valencia match which was held in Milan’s San Siro.

At least one Spanish journalist is understood to have contracted the virus as he covered the match in northern Italy – the original epicentre in Europe for coronavirus.

Immunologist Professor Francesco Le Foche said: “It’s probably that there were several major triggers and catalysts for the diffusion of the virus.

“The Atalanta-Valencia game could very well have been one of them. It was the apex of collective euphoria in a unique football season for this club.

“A month has passed since that match, so the timing is pertinent.

“The aggregation of thousands of people, centimetres from each other, engaging in manifestations of euphoria like hugging, shouting, all of that could’ve favoured viral reciprocation.

“I have to imagine many didn’t want to miss that game if they had tickets, even if they felt a slight fever.

“With hindsight, it was madness to play with a crowd present, but at the time things weren’t clear enough. It’d be unthinkable now.”

The area around Bergamo went into lockdown just four days after the game as the number of cases soared.

Bergamo mayor Giorgio Gori labelled the clash a “biological bomb” and says he believes it caused the spread of the virus in Europe.

He is quoted in Spanish paper Marca as saying: “The match was a biological bomb. At that time we did not know what was happening.

“If the virus was already circulating, the forty thousand fans who went to San Siro were infected.

“No one knew that the virus was already circulating among us.

“Many watched the game in groups and there were lots of contact [between fans] that night.

“The virus passed from one person to another.”

Spain is among the worst-affected countries in the world – surpassing China for the number of deaths earlier this week.

In the past 24 hours, a further 832 people died after contracting Covid-19, taking the total to 5,690.

A further 8,189 cases were confirmed meaning 72,248 people have caught the bug in the country.

Professor Julio Mayol, medical director at the Clinico San Carlos Hospital in Madrid, told Sky News: “It is a bad situation, it is really bad and it is getting worse day by day, because the number of positive Covid-19 patients is increasing.

“We have a large number of patients, and the problem is we can’t increase the room available.

“We can provide them with more beds, but we need personal protection equipment (PPE), and there is a global shortage, and this is makes it very difficult for us to send healthcare workers to battle on the frontline without the adequate equipment.”

The second leg against Atalanta was played in front of an empty stadium but the first leg went ahead in Milan with 44,000 fansCredit: AFP

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk