MANILA – Blackwater’s scheduled Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) game on Sunday night against Rain Or Shine has been postponed after one of its players tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, Bases Conversion Development Authority chief Vince Dizon, and sports doctor George Canlas confirmed earlier in the day the said development.
“Yung ating PBA player na may lumabas na positive result kagabi, na-isolate na (The PBA player who had a positive result last night has been isolated already). We’re asking the PBA to conduct an antigen and RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) for the player who tested positive,” Dizon said.
Canlas added: “We’re going to test the player today.”
They kept mum on the identity of the said player, but he was apparently around on Thursday night when the Elite faced the TNT Tropang Giga.
“Pina-isolate nila Sec. Vince ang buong team ng Blackwater pati yung kalaban (TNT) kasi close contacts sila (Sec. Vince asked the entire Blackwater team to be isolated as well as its opponent because they were close contacts),” Marcial said.
However, Canlas quipped that the other players may not be retested quickly.
“We cannot test them right now with RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) because it is too early. But we will test them using antigen in the coming days,” he said.
The Elite, along with the Alaska Aces, asked for a retesting on Thursday after one of the referees in their Tuesday night match-up was initially tested positive for Covid-19.
Interestingly enough, the said referee tested negative in his latest swab test, affirming the negative result he had in the antigen test on Wednesday.
The development somehow confirmed that the game official got a false positive.
“Kailangan intindihin natin na walang perfect na test. Pwedeng magkamali. Ang importante, meron tayong protocol para i-address ang situation na ganito (We need to understand that there is no perfect test. It may reveal a mistake. The important thing is that we have a protocol to address this kind of situation),” Dizon said.
He added that everyone has been adhering to the rules during the league’s season bubble in Angeles.
“There is no reason to say that the bubble has been breached. The protocols have been followed,” Dizon quipped.
Meanwhile, despite the postponement of the Blackwater-Rain Or Shine game, Marcial assured, “Tuloy ang Manila Clasico (The Manila Clasico will push through),” pertaining to Sunday’s nightcap between rivals Ginebra and Magnolia.