Two Pelita Jaya Basketball Players Positive For COVID-19, Match Against Satya Wacana Postponed
JAKARTA – The number of cases of COVID-19 among athletes, especially basketball players, continues to increase. After the Indonesia Patriots announced that seven of their players had tested positive, now Sunday, January 30, it is the turn of the Pelita Jaya basketball club to also announce that two of its players have been exposed to the corona virus.
This case adds to the list of players competing in the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) Tokopedia 2022 competition who have been affected by COVID-19.
The two players are Govinda Julian Saputra and Fernando Fransco Manansang, who have flu and cold symptoms. Several Pelita Jaya personnel are also currently under special supervision from the team of doctors and the COVID-19 Task Force from IBL.
Pelita Jaya actually carried out a PCR test on January 26 with zero or zero COVID-19 findings. Then on January 28, the Pelita Jaya team came to Bandung and conducted a second screening. They have to wait for the test results to come out before doing the activity.
After the test results came out on Sunday morning WIB, Fernando and Govinda were tested positive for COVID-19, Pelita Jaya again carried out the PCR test today, Sunday, January 30, at 11:30 WIB.
Due to this case, the match between Pelita Jaya vs Satya Wacana Salatiga, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday, January 30, had to be postponed.
"The Pelita Jaya vs Satya Wacana match had to be postponed. We have to wait for the PCR test results from Pelita Jaya," said IBL President Director Junas Miradiarsyah as quoted from IBL's official website, Sunday, January 30.
The test results did come out a little longer due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases recently.
"Thus, the two matches earlier today, Sunday, January 30, have been postponed. Apart from Pelita against Satya Wacana, the Indonesia Patriots vs. NSH Mountain Gold match has also been postponed," said Junas.
Previously, seven Indonesian Patriots personnel tested positive for COVID-19. They are Ali Bagir Wayarabi Alhadar, AA Gede Bagus, Victory Lobbu, Serigne Modou Kane, assistant coach Ricky Gunawan, team manager Jamin Matotoran and Renny Dwi Chandrawati.
One day later, the organizers conducted a retest. As a result, one more player was indicated as positive for COVID-19, namely Aldy Izzatur Rahman.
"We then retested the eight people again on Saturday, January 29. As a result, seven people were still positive and only Modou tested negative for COVID-19," Junas explained.
In addition, Satria Muda player Arief Febri was also found positive for COVID-19 after undergoing a series of tests on Friday, January 28 night in Bandung.
The organizers of IBL Tokopedia 2022 will hold a virtual press conference regarding the latest news and the fate of the second series in Bandung today, at 14:30 WIB.