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Continental Hockey Leagues (KHL) team Spartak Moscow, led by Oleg Znarok a Harijs Vītoliņš, due to the coronavirus, prematurely closed the training camp in Novogorsk and will return to Moscow, the club said in a statement.
It has already been reported that Spartak suspended the training camp due to the coronavirus on July 17, but now the unit has decided to stop it altogether and return to the Russian capital. Positive Covid-19 test results were found for a number of team hockey players and team staff. Even before the start of the training camp in Novogorsk, another test of players, coaches and service staff was performed, where six players and one representative of the team staff showed a positive Covid-19 reaction.
Due to the impossibility to manage the training process in an optimal composition, the management of Spartak has decided to end the training camp in Novogorsk and return to Moscow. In the near future, the management of the club will decide on the adaptation of the pre-season training plan to the new conditions, ”the club said in a statement. Further testing of the team did not reveal any new cases of Covid-19.
Russian news portal sport-express.ru reports that Spartak team defender Andrei Zubarev has reported the illness on his Instagram website.
An outbreak of coronavirus has already been reported in other clubs in the league. In the “Avangard” team of Omsk, which is coached by the head coach of the Latvian national team Bob Hartley, 20 people have a positive Covid-19 analysis, and the team has decided not to start the pre-season tournament in Sochi. Positive coronavirus test results were also found for seven Moscow CSKA hockey players.
The virus has also affected Cherepovets’ Severstal players, as well as athletes on several Youth Hockey League (MHL) teams. In the last week, a total of 38 hockey players have been infected in the CSKA, Spartak and Avangard teams.
2019/2020. The 2006 KHL season was suspended in March, but was subsequently declared premature due to a coronavirus pandemic. The upcoming KHL season should start on September 2, but the rapid deterioration of the epidemiological situation in the whole country may affect the changes in the start date of the 2020/2020 regular season.
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