GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Cricket West Indies (CWI) has said the high performance camp here will continue in small groups today despite fast bowler Marquino Mindley testing positive for COVID-19.
The 26-year-old Jamaican was the only positive test among those carried out among players and management on Friday, as part of the camp which is taking place at the Darren Sammy National Stadium in preparation for the two-Test series against South Africa.
Mindley, who returned the positive result on his second test but has remained asymptomatic, will now undergo self-isolation in his hotel room while being supervised by CWI’s medical team.
“All other members of the training squad and coaching team were re-tested and isolated in their rooms, with training cancelled for the weekend,” CWI said in a statement Sunday.
“All of these training squad and coaching team members have now tested negative following their repeat tests and the squad will train in small groups starting on Monday, May 24 …”
In keeping with the country’s Ministry of Health protocols, Mindley will have to return two consecutive negative results before ending isolation.
Thirty players assembled here over the last week to tune up for the upcoming series against the Proteas, which kicks off a heavy home schedule that will see Australia and Pakistan also arriving for a combination of Test and white ball series.
The camp is being conducted in a bio-secure bubble amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with social distancing, repeated COVID testing and increased sanitisation measures being employed.
As of yesterday, St Lucia had 238 active cases of COVID-19 with nearly 5 000 recorded overall since the start of the pandemic, along with 77 deaths.
South Africa is scheduled to arrive here on June 1 for two back-to-back Tests starting June 10.
