TORTONA. The most troubled week of the year ended with the finale feared from the start. In Serie A basketball, Bertram was unable to play the match outdoors against Reggio Emilia, after the detection of two Covid positive results in the team group. To decree the stop for Marco Ramondino’s team was the quarantine imposed by the ASL of Alessandria, notified of the outcome of the tampons by the Juventus club. A procedure in line with the one that has involved many other Serie A teams in recent days (Olimpia Milan, Naples, Fortitudo Bologna and Varese).
But the road that led to the postponement of yesterday’s match was particularly tortuous, starting from mid-week, as reconstructed by the president Marco Picchi. «Wednesday was found the positivity of a player who had shown some symptoms – comments the top manager -. So, we swabbed the whole group on the same day and the next, which brought out two other cases of contagion. From that moment we have continued to carry out tests on a daily basis, which on Friday and Saturday had not reported further cases ».
The good news, which arrived on Christmas Eve, had therefore restarted the team with the regular resumption of training. But, unfortunately, the Covid threat soon returned to annoy the lions. «We left for the trip to Bologna (we had to play in Casalecchio; ed) on Saturday afternoon – says Picchi -. Yesterday morning other swabs were carried out which revealed two new cases of positivity. Consequently, we sent all the tests to the ASL of Alessandria, which arranged for the group to stop the activity and the period of isolation until the next round of molecular swabs. So the team was unable to play the match and returned to Tortona today. The somewhat strange thing is that positive elements have emerged that a few days earlier had been negative, perhaps it is also difficult to understand when it is convenient to test following a contact with a positive ».
What happened at Bertram led the president to spread a reflection on the issue of the sporting protocols in force, in the light of a different epidemiological framework compared to last season: «The protocols for professional sports drawn up in October 2020 need to be urgently rethought. Today, we are in the presence of a different virus and we have vaccines. If we want to continue the season we have to update the regulations that govern it ».
What in particular needs to be changed? «In basketball teams, the numbers of squads are reduced compared to those of football – replies Marco Picchi -. Considering then that players and staff members are all vaccinated, compared to last year’s protocols, we must think about a reintegration into the team and a shorter resumption of training. The timing should be shortened since we are faced with practically asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic cases of positivity, which could become negatized within a few days. I believe that, in this case, we must give the opportunity to resume the regular running of the championship, without the risk of clogging up the calendar with too many missed matches ».