Olympics-Three more Australian water polo players test positive for COVID

By Aadi Nair

PARIS (Reuters) -Three more Australian women's water polo players have tested positive for COVID ahead of the Paris Games, the country's Olympic team chief Anna Meares said on Wednesday, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the team up to five.

Two players had tested positive on Tuesday. Meares added that the cases were confined to the water polo team.

"There have been five athletes in total who have tested positive," Meares told a press conference.

"There is training this afternoon. And again, if those five athletes are feeling well enough to train, they will and they are following all the protocols that we have. I can confirm that the whole of the water polo team has been tested as well.

"They've been wearing their masks, they're isolating from other team members when they're not training, they're not going into the high-volume areas of the allotment, like the gym and the performance pantry, and more broadly, we have our respiratory illnesses protocol in place."

Meares added that the Australian Olympic Committee had encouraged athletes to get tested for COVID if they felt unwell.

"We treat COVID no differently to any other respiratory illness, but we want to ensure that we have our protocols working as well, and dealing with these illnesses and minimising them is a part and parcel of every Olympic Games," Meares said.

The water polo competition at the Paris Games will take place from July 27-Aug. 11 at the Paris Aquatic Centre and Paris La Defense Arena.

Paris 2024 is meant to be the first post-pandemic summer Olympics, after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year due to COVID, were held largely without spectators.

The French government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said there was only a moderate increase in COVID cases in the country.

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in ParisEditing by Christian Radnedge)