Mohammad Hafeez has tested negative in a private test for Covid-19, a day after a test result carried out by a different lab under the PCB’s testing protocol showed up as positive.
On Tuesday, it emerged that Hafeez was one of 10 players who tested positive for the virus after testing carried out on the entire 29-man squad due to fly out to England on June 28.
Those tests were carried out by Shaukat Khanum Laboratory. Hafeez, however, conducted a private test through Chugtai Laboratory in Lahore for a “second opinion” for him and his family. That result, he said in a tweet, was negative for him and his family.
Hafeez’s actions were not looked upon kindly by the PCB, with the board CEO Wasim Khan reprimanding Hafeez in a conversation later in the day. No disciplinary action is expected but Hafeez was told that he should’ve gone back to the board as a first step rather than seek out a private test and it was made clear the board was unhappy with his actions because they had undermined the PCB’s testing protocols.
Pakistan’s entire squad is in any case due to be retested before they leave. The players who tested negative the first time have assembled at a hotel in Lahore and will be tested in bio-secure conditions on June 25th. Those who tested positive – including Hafeez – will be tested at their residences one day later, on June 26th. Only after those tests will Pakistan know the exact make-up of the squad that flies out on June 28th.
Hafeez has not said why he tested privately, although an ambiguity in the PCB’s plans would not have helped. In a statement on Tuesday the board had said that players who tested positive “will observe self-isolation in their homes and remain under strict monitoring of the PCB medical panel. As soon as they will complete their minimum quarantine period, they will undergo further testing and after their two tests are negative, they will be flown to England on a commercial airline.”
That would suggest that those players who tested positive would not be tested again for a few more days, until that “minimum quarantine period” was over, and June 26th was not earmarked as a specific date in that release. It is also not clear whether the board had communicated this date of retesting to players who tested positive once the first results came in.
If any of the 10 players who tested positive now test negative on June 26th, they will have to undergo another test within 48 hours. Only if that result also comes out negative will they be cleared to travel to the UK.
The fact that all players who tested positive have not reported any symptoms has made matters trickier, especially in terms of how long any quarantine period should be. But those players who did test positive for the virus and don’t travel on June 28th, will continue to be monitored with tests every few days and only when they show two negative test results will they be allowed to travel. ♦
(The story originally published by ESPNCricinfo)
