MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. /TASS/. Tests for the novel coronavirus of Russian national football team’s players Georgy Dzhikiya and Marinato Guilherme returned suspicious results and both footballers have been isolated from the rest of the national squad, the press office of the Russian national team announced in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the press service, the tests for COVID-19 of center-back Dzhikiya and goalkeeper Guilherme have been sent for reanalysis, which will take some time.
"Both footballers have been isolated and will be taking follow-up tests for the coronavirus on a daily basis," the statement reads. "They currently show no symptoms of the disease and are feeling fine."
"Follow-up tests for the coronavirus of the rest of the team as well as of the coaching and assisting staff members have returned negative results," the press office added.
According to the World Ranking of the global governing body of football, FIFA, which was released on September 17, the Russian national football team has moved six places up and is currently ranked 32nd with 1,485 points among other national teams, moving up from its 38th position in the previous edition of the FIFA World Ranking.
The jump in the new rating list followed Russia’s wins in two international matches last month. Playing in the group stage of the UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) Nations League in September, the Russian team defeated Serbia at home on September 3 (3-1) and then enjoyed an away win against Hungary on September 6 (3-2).
Global coronavirus crisis
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 36,075,790 people have been infected worldwide and more than 1,055,150 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 27,167,800 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, 1,248,619 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 995,275 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 21,865 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.