Pau (AFP)

The entire professional workforce of Pau-Lacq-Orthez is now positive for Covid-19 after new tests carried out on Friday, the basketball club announced in a press release published on Sunday evening.

L'Élan Béarnais indicates that "following the identification of a COVID-19 cluster on Monday, September 28 (11 people including 4 professional staff), all contact cases were tested on Friday October 2. These new tests tested positive for 5 other pro players.

It is therefore "the entire professional workforce that is concerned as well as almost all of the Hopes workforce", underlines the Béarn club.

"The two teams are at a standstill, the club continuing to apply the LNB's health protocol. Each person tested positive is supervised and benefits from medical monitoring, as well as those around him," said the same press release.

People who tested positive on Monday, September 28 will take a new test on Monday, the club adds.

On the announcement of the first positive cases a week ago, the executive director of Élan Didier Gadou tried to reassure, specifying in a tweet that "the 11 concerned were asymptomatic".

The match against Le Mans scheduled for September 28 had been postponed until the last moment, thus avoiding further contagion while the Sarthois were in the Palais des Sports in Pau.

Under the LNB's health protocol, Elan's match against Monaco, initially scheduled for October 12, should also be postponed.

For three weeks, positive cases of Covid-19 have multiplied in French basketball clubs, in particular in Boulazac, Portel and within Paris Basket.

This forced the Health Committee of the LNB to postpone several matches of the Jeep Elite.

While seven clubs have already played 3 days this season, Boulazac has not yet started a match.

- Reports in shambles, a package in rugby -

Among girls, the final of the Coupe de France to oppose Bourges to ASVEL, on September 18, was canceled due to four positive cases detected (3 in Bourges, one in Villeurbanne) on the day of the final.

Five new positive cases appeared shortly after in the ranks of ASVEL.

The multiplication of "positive results (at Covid-19) or cases of proven contacts affecting several teams" had led the Women's Basketball League (LFB) to postpone the entire first day scheduled for September 25 and 26.

It will take place on October 14.

Other indoor sports have been disrupted by the pandemic.

In handball, Starligue (Créteil-Dunkerque) and Champions League (Ferencvaros-Metz, Szeged-Paris) matches have been postponed to September.

In rugby, a + cluster + detected in August at the Stade Français returning from a training camp in Nice, severely disrupted the preparation of the Parisian club, deprived of pre-season friendly matches.

Strongly impacted on the front line, with some players suffering from lung damage, the capital club had seen its opening match scheduled for September 4 against Bordeaux-Bègles postponed.

This weekend, two matches of the 3rd day of Top 14, Castres-Montpellier and La Rochelle-Racing 92 could not take place due to contamination with Covid-19.

Castres Olympique did not have this chance in the European Challenge.

Supposed to go to Leicester to play its quarter-final, the Tarn club had been eliminated by forfeit due to four cases of Covid-19 in its workforce.

© 2020 AFP