An unwelcome attendee has joined the Paris Olympic Games: Covid-19

CNN —

After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for Covid-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Five players on Australia’s women’s water polo team have tested positive for Covid-19 as of Wednesday.

Visitors look at The Eiffel Tower adorned with The Olympic Rings ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 16, 2024.

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There are “protocols that are in place” for such cases, which recommend mask-wearing for people who test positive, a Paris 2024 spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

“We regularly remind athletes and all other Games stakeholders of the good practices to adopt should they experience any respiratory symptoms: wearing a mask in the presence of others, limiting contacts and washing hands regularly with soap and water or using hand sanitiser,” the statement says.

“Hand sanitiser stations can be found at all the residential areas and also the restaurant of the Olympic Village,” according to the statement. “We continue to carefully monitor the public health situation in France, in conjunction with the relevant government ministry.”

Many of the national teams also may have their own safety protocols to protect their athletes, said Lucia Mullen, an associate scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and a member of the World Health Organization’s mass gathering expert group, which regularly works on these issues.

“For the Covid-19 cases, as with other respiratory diseases and also other gastrointestinal diseases, they will really promote hand hygiene and other basic hygiene measures –