FILE PHOTO: Paris 2024 Olympics - IOC Session - Main Press Centre, Paris, France - July 23, 2024. Anna Meares Chef de Mission for Paris 2024 Australian Olympic Team during the press conference REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
PARIS (Reuters) -French and Australian officials on Tuesday played down the risk of a COVID cluster at the Paris Olympics after the Australia team was the first to report that one of its athletes, a water polo player, had tested positive and been isolated.
Paris 2024 is meant to be the first post-pandemic summer Olympics, after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year due to COVID, were held largely without spectators.
"I need to emphasise that we are treating COVID no differently to other bugs like the flu. This is not Tokyo," Australia's Olympic team chief Anna Meares told a press conference.
Meares said the athlete's teammates would wear masks and adhere to social distancing measures. All close contacts were tested.
"It was late last night when she presented with symptoms and the good thing is that having our own testing equipment means that we can get that information really, really quickly and intervene both in diagnosis and treatment," Meares added.
"The athlete is not particularly unwell," she said.
A second Australia player, who was a close contact, later tested positive as well, the Australian Olympic Committee said, but no other athletes in the country's team have been diagnosed with COVID.
The first athlete to have tested positive for COVID chose not to train with her teammates on Tuesday afternoon but the second player was well enough to take part, the Australian committee said. Neither were named.
The French government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said there was only a moderate increase in COVID cases in the country.
"There is no big risk of a cluster," Health Minister Frederic Valletoux told broadcaster franceinfo.
"Of course COVID is here. We've seen a small peak (in cases)," he said. "But we are far from what we saw in 2020, 2021, 2022."
He added that there was no obligation to wear a mask because the number of cases was still low.
"Some precautions are being taken but, because the level at which COVID is spreading is very low, they depend on the organisers."
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris concurred, telling reporters in Geneva: "France has seen an uptick in recent weeks and they are seeing a moderate impact on their health care system."
The advice, she said, was: "Be responsible, especially when you have these athletes who are working.
"It's just a very big moment in their career, and it would be a horrible thing if you gave that to an athlete. So anybody with symptoms is asked to stay at home or stay in their hotel."
(Reporting by Irene Wang, additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel in Paris and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Geneva; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Christian Radnedge)
