MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia’s professional sports leagues scrambled to put contingency plans in place yesterday after Queensland authorities announced the closure of three days in the state capital Brisbane to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak.
Approximately 2 million people in Brisbane, the country’s third largest city, will be required to stay home from 5 pm local time excluding essential work, health care, grocery shopping or exercise.
The Brisbane Lions Australian Football League (AFL) team will remain in the southern state of Victoria, after waiting for developments since their match against the Geelong Cats on Friday.
Their home game against Collingwood Magpies has been changed from the Gabba stadium to Melbourne’s Docklands, the AFL said on Monday.
The Brisbane Broncos National Rugby League (BRL) team is expected to accelerate their flight to Victoria in preparation for their match against champions Melbourne Storm on Friday.
NRL boss Peter V’landys told Australian radio station 2GB over the weekend that the league could eventually move games.
“It really depends on the rate of infection,” he said.
“The next 48 hours will tell us how much it has gone out into the community and its rate and we will make the decisions from there.”
A-League football team, Brisbane Roar, said they were consulting with the league about their scheduled home match against Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday.
The Queensland Reds Super Rugby team, which beat Waratahs New South Wales in Sydney over the weekend, may need to change travel plans and head directly to Melbourne for their game against the Rebels on Saturday.
Queensland officials reported four new COVID-19 cases transmitted locally on Monday, taking the cluster of cases linked to the UK variation to seven. The first outbreak was reported in the new cluster on Friday.