Article Text
Abstract
Objective To examine the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in a cohort of 6500 professional athletes and staff during the 2020 football (soccer) season in São Paulo, Brazil.
Methods This retrospective cohort study included 4269 players (87% male, age: 21.7±4.2 years) and 2231 staff (87% male, age: 42.6±11.9 years) from 122 teams (women: n=16) involved in eight leagues (women: n=2), which took place in São Paulo, Brazil. Between 4 July 2020 and 21 December 2020, swab samples were collected weekly (n=29 507) and tested for SARS-Cov-2 via reverse transcription-PCR by an accredited laboratory commissioned by the São Paulo Football Federation. We contacted the medical staff of each team with positive cases to collect information on disease severity.
Results Among 662 PCR-confirmed cases, 501 were athletes and 161 were staff. The new infection rate was 11.7% and 7.2% for athletes and staff, respectively. Athletes were more susceptible to infection than staff (OR: 1.71, 95% CI: 1.42, 2.06, p<0.001), although with lower chance for moderate to severe disease (OR: 0.06, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.54, p=0.012). Six teams had ≥20 individuals testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, whereas 19 teams had ≥10 confirmed cases. Twenty-five mass outbreaks were identified (≥5 infections within a team in a 2-week period). The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections was similar in athletes and staff as the general population in São Paulo.
Conclusion Despite weekly testing and other preventive measures, we found a high SARS-CoV-2 infection rate in athletes and staff after resuming football, which coincides with the high prevalence of infection in the community during the same period. These data may assist policy-makers and sports federations for determining if and when it is safe to resume competitions.
- Covid-19
- soccer
- communicable diseases
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Footnotes
Twitter @Appl_Phys_Nutr, @AnaJPinto, @itolemes
Collaborators Coalition SPORT-COVID-19: Gilberto Scarf and Marcelo Luiz Campos Vieira (Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein/Federal University of São Paulo), Nabil Ghorayeb, Lorena Christine Araújo de Albuquerque and Bruno Bassaneze (HCor Hospital do Coração), Marcos Perillo Filho, Rodrigo Otávio Bougleux Alô and Thiago Ghorayeb Garcia (Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia), Mateus Freitas Teixeira (Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama/Complexo Hospitalar de Niterói), Danilo Prado, Fernanda Rodrigues Lima, Diego Rezende and Marina Valente Guimarães Cecchini (University of São Paulo).
Contributors BG, LDNJM and ALdSP designed the study; BG, GB, AJP and IRL analysed the data. BG wrote the manuscript and all the authors significantly revised it and approved the final version.
Funding São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grants #2017/13552-2 and #2020/04877-8.
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Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.