Disarray as 47 players affected after positive tests on Australian Open planes

Put them back on a plane and send them back. Simple.

The tournament should have been cancelled. There are thousands of Australians still trying to get home yet the federal and state governments willing ignore their own medical guidelines so these meaningless sporting events can take place.

"Tennis like you've never seen before"

What utter BS

Just stupid stupid stupid. So many Australians o’seas unable to get home and this is allowed to happen. So stupid.

Meanwhile, with the olympics looming, expect the same result multiplied by a hundred.

Yet, the Tokyo olympics want to fly in approx 75.000 people( athletes, coaches, media, officials, federation and NOC officials, sponsor representatives, ..)

As i mentioned in several posts here, this occurring at the AO was unavoidable. And immoral. To spend so much government money while Australian citizens not only receive no help to return home but are told to stay away. The egocentrism of the players is also widely on show. No sense of relativity. It is just a few tennis games and you are contributing to the risks of people’s lives, and still now, they can only think of their inconvenience of having to stay 2 weeks in a hotelroom and unable to train. Arrogant and selfish

Has anybody bothered to actually look at the mortality rate of this disease?

I've never seen such a hysterical reaction to a virus before?

Folks - this isn't ebola!

There are medicines that are effective in treating COVID-19.

How about we stop wringing our hands and start living again?

@shinichi

japan is 120,000,000 with 4600 deaths.

but the death rate is 8x that of seasonal heat attack deaths, so this virus/s is serious!

A preview of what to look forward to if we have the Olympics this summer.

This is exactly why I hate modern professional sport and the over-sized influence it has over society.

@Ego

”over-sized influence it has over society.”

I wanted to thumb you up but you pic makes me think your comments a tad hypocritical no?

It is evident that the virus is not simply to be measured by its mortality rate. Until worldwide vaccination is in place there is naught to stop the spread, other than effective, determined protocols which have been advanced ad nauseum. Restricted travel within a locale is one of the tenets. Jetting about the globe appears to be a mainstay for spread of the virus and such as the AO, is to reflect statements above and in the media, insane. In Japan the was transmitted via tourists from Wuhan, in case anybody has amnesia. It did not spontaneously occur, it was transmitted.

Those professing a rather vapid understanding, framed as the virus having an inconsequential morbidity rate, neglect the larger impacts of the virus. Overwhelming numbers of seriously ill individuals require hospitalization and there are not enough healthcare facilities and medical personnel to staff the institutions to treat the afflicted. In addition, overcrowded hospitals, with a large number of patients requiring isolation, disallow admittance of individuals requiring care for medical treatment. Surgeries have to be cancelled along with treatments.

All in all, enacting athletic events such as the AO illustrate the problems writ large in advancing such events. It also pointedly indicates the foolishness of allowing unwarranted international travel during a pandemic. Another revelation is the inadequacy of the healthcare system and the lack of medical staff to deal with a worldwide pandemic.

Vaccines are in place and awaiting manufacture and distribution routes. Athletic contests need to be cancelled and rescheduled. What seems to be lacking, in a simple sense, is patience and which over-ridden by economics. The AO, the Olympics and other big sporting events need to be punted into the dark. Wealthy athletes nee to take a powder and go lounge about their estates in isolation. For those who depend on wages and such from AO and similar events, somehow, there should be a financial offset to provide for necessities and missed wages.

Now, imagine this scenario with every country flying people in for the Olympics. International sporting events should be cancelled, plain and simple, unless they can somehow be done online, like figure skating could, for example.

Although an Aussie... this was a ridiculous idea.

And yes, tens of thousands of Aussies really stuck overseas.

I am not ‘stuck’ but would rather be in QLD now (like I do for a few months a year) then be in Tokyo...

But better than elsewhere I guess.

And the Olympics will be 100x worse than the Aussie Open in bringing the virus in.

such is life....

Breaking News:

The Australian Open has announced a fourth case of coronavirus, with the commissioner warning some players and their entourages are attempting “dangerous acts” which are breaching quarantine rules.

@ shinichi

Spoken like someone who hasn't had Covid...

Got it in March. Wish I never had. I'm still sick 10 months later. Have you heard about long Covid? It destroys your life and affects a lot of people.

And statistics leave you cold because you don't realise these are actual people. When it's your mum, your dad, your wife, it's more than just a pourcentage of the population.

It's not about the sport, it's about the income it generates for the participants.

nostromoJan. 17 06:51 am JST

The tournament should have been cancelled. There are thousands of Australians still trying to get home yet the federal and state governments willing ignore their own medical guidelines so these meaningless sporting events can take place.

I would not call these sporting event meaningless, but I would agree this one should be cancelled.   Please remember that thousands of people, down the chain from the athletes competing, have jobs very much related to sporting events. Or in other sports, too, such as American baseball, or soccer around the world, people work at the stadiums at the concession stands, trucks delivering food to the stadium, people selling team souvenirs, security, local restaurants and tourism around the stadium area or in the city itself. The list goes on and on. Many times, the sporting event is the only reason people that don't live in that area go there. The sporting event has a massive ripple effect.