UAE Tour: Riders, staff, and media told they will be able to leave soon
Riders, staff, and media currently in lockdown in their Abu Dhabi hotels after the cancellation of the UAE Tour have been told that they will be allowed to leave the country soon assuming their medical tests for the virus are negative.
Participants and other personnel working the race have been confined to their hotels on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi since Thursday. Organizers cancelled the race due to coronavirus concerns after Abu Dhabi authorities stated that two team staff members had tested positive for coronavirus.
Over the course of the next day, medical personnel tested hundreds of people involved with the race for coronavirus. Although authorities have yet to provide official word on the status of those tests, state media reported on Saturday afternoon that all tests carried out so far had come back negative.
On Saturday evening, riders, staff, and media at the race were notified that those whose test results were negative would be receiving paperwork confirming those results, and then allowed to leave.
Included in that notification was a stipulation that individuals must return specifically to the countries on their passports. Countless riders and other media at the race will therefore only be allowed to travel to their passport country even if they live or planned to continue training or racing somewhere else.
For now, the timeline for the departure of the hundreds of people who have been confined to the hotels since Thursday remains unclear, as does the status of the two team staff members that authorities initially said tested positive. Although health department has not provided those on lockdown in the Abu Dhabi hotels any update on that situation, various European media outlets have reported that the two team staffers did not, in fact, test positive for coronavirus.
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