Proliga 2022 Contestant Team Agrees The Second Round Competition To Continue Amid The COVID-19 Storm

JAKARTA – All contestants of the 2022 Proliga volleyball competition agreed to continue the second round. With a note that health protocols that are much stricter will be applied than the first round.

Proliga Director Hanny S. Surkatty said that strict protocols were important in the current situation. Moreover, there have been findings of cases of COVID-19 infecting athletes and coaches.

"All teams have agreed to continue the second round and continue with the final four and final," he said, quoting ANTARA.

The 2022 Proliga was interrupted by COVID-19 in the last week of the first round. This follows the finding that five players from Gresik Petrokimia Pupuk Indonesia were infected with the corona virus.

The five infected players are Hany Budiarti, Geofanny Eka Cahyaningtyas, Nur Kholissah, and two foreign players Brionne Butler and Jennifer Alvarez.

In addition, the coach of Surabaya Bhayangkara Samator Sigit Ari Widodo was also exposed to the virus. Despite the findings of the case, the team agreed to continue the national volleyball highest caste competition.

Hanny explained that the match would continue if there were nine healthy and ready to compete in a team. Matches will only be postponed if more than half of the players in a team are exposed to the virus.

"The match time has been postponed a maximum of ten days from the initial schedule of matches scheduled at the start of the competition. If this is not possible, the postponed matches will be held on Monday and Thursday the following week," he said.

The Proliga participating teams have also made an agreement in a virtual meeting regarding the training mechanism every Thursday. They agreed to undergo an antigen swab test before entering the training ground.

In addition, all parties including 20 invitees from each team are also required to bring a negative antigen test result letter when entering the competition arena.