Athletes looking to travel to Birmingham for the upcoming Commonwealth Games will need to produce negative COVID-19 test results before competing in the English city, it has been confirmed.
Britain has removed all coronavirus entry rules for travellers, but Birmingham 2022 has told insidethegames that those attending the Games will need to undergo testing in a bid to reduce the threat of COVID-19.
According to Birmingham 2022, all athletes and officials are required to take a polymerase chain reaction test before travelling to Birmingham and then another upon arrival at the Games.
Several recommendations are also being made by Birmingham 2022 to ensure “everyone has the best possible chance of attending and enjoying the Games.”
Among those include social distancing, increasing ventilation, maintaining personal hygiene, minimising physical contact, avoiding staying for “unnecessarily long periods of time in crowded areas” and wearing masks “in indoor settings while in close proximity to athletes and on Games transport.”
It is also recommended that participants who have developed COVID-19 symptoms stay in their accommodation and avoid contact with others.
The measures come against a backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases in England, with an estimated one in 25 people having coronavirus in the last week of June.