Thai soccer team member tests positive for virus

Health officials in Thailand say a 29-year-old player from Uzbekistan who is a member of the Buriram United Football Club has tested positive for the coronavirus. The player arrived in Thailand a month ago and tested negative three times during his initial 14-day quarantine period in Bangkok ending Aug. 27.

Health officials in Thailand say a 29-year-old player from Uzbekistan who is a member of the Buriram United Football Club has tested positive for the coronavirus. Dr. Yong Poosvorawan, an expert from Chalulongkorn University, said Friday that there is a high chance that the player, whose name was not released, contracted it outside of Thailand. The incubation period for the disease can sometimes be longer than 14 days.

Dr. Sophon Iamsirithaworn, director of the Communicable Disease Control Department, said the team's 44 players and staff have been put under a 14-day quarantine. The player, who has shown no symptoms, was admitted to a Bangkok hospital. The player arrived in Thailand a month ago and tested negative three times during his initial 14-day quarantine period in Bangkok ending Aug. 27. He traveled to the northeastern province of Buriram, and then tested positive on Sept. 8 ahead of the planned season opener.

The other Buriram personnel tested negative, but the team's match for this Sunday was postponed, as were matches of two teams with which they warmed up. A prison inmate earlier this month became Thailand's first locally transmitted coronavirus case shortly after the country marked 100 days without one.