The Chipolopolo boys this morning underwent the mandatory Covid-19 tests as part of the CAF medical tournament protocols.

Team Doctor George Phiri said the exercise went on smoothly with results expected within 24 hours.

The Covid-19 tests will be conducted on all the participating teams, 48 hours before any fixture.

With Zambia playing their opening game on Tuesday in Limbe against Tanzania, they underwent the medical routine.
“This morning we were doing the medical accreditation for all the players and officials. We have finished the process and just awaiting the results,” Dr Phiri said.
“…we have CAF medical guidelines with regards to Covid-19, that is very important. Amongst the guidelines which we have advised the players to always be masked up except may be during training and when they are having warm up and meals.”

He added: “Each player has hand sanitizers, each room has a bottle of hand sanitizer, we also encourage the players to regularly wash their hands because that is one of the important guidelines. Furthermore, the players are encouraged to maintain social distance to avoid contamination and close contact to each other and since they are already in single rooms that is also a plus to us to ensure that we even minimize contact with each other except during training.”

Dr Phiri said the medical team was keeping tabs everyone in the delegation to ensure that the risk of infection was kept at the minimum.

Since the team’s arrival in Cameroon on December 31, 2020, they have regularly undergone Covid-19 protocols.

According to tournament regulations, players that test positive will not take part in the game with team requiring a minimum of 11 negative players to take part in a game.

The Total African Nations Championship (CHAN) kicked off on Saturday with hosts Cameroon beating Zimbabwe 1-0 while Mali also edged Burkina Faso by same margin in Group A.

Today action shifts to Group B where Libya takes on Niger at 17H00 while Congo takes on DR Congo in a 20H00 kickoff.

Zambia is in Group D alongside Guinea, Namibia and Tanzania with the Chipolopolo stationed in Buea.

Soka25east.com