This weekend’s games, Worcester Warriors v Harlequins and London Irish v Northampton Saints, have been cancelled due to COVID-19 cases, Premiership Rugby said on Wednesday.
Harlequins’ trip to Worcester on Friday was called off after one of their players tested positive for COVID-19 and six others were placed in isolation due to contact tracing.
London Irish’s home match against Northampton on Sunday was called off after they returned several positive results in the latest round of testing and had players unavailable because of contact tracing protocols.
“A Premiership Rugby panel will now be convened to determine the allocation of points and a further announcement will be made in due course,” the league said in a statement, adding that all other round-five games will go ahead as scheduled.
The Premiership recorded 33 new positive COVID-19 results in its latest round of testing, the most in any week this season.
The league carried out a total of 951 tests on players and management of the 12 clubs, with 24 players and nine members of staff returning positive results.
“No specific details as to clubs or individuals will be provided under any circumstances. The number of positive results will be made public after each round of testing,” the Premiership said in a statement.
Since the season kicked off, there have been 76 positive results in seven rounds of testing.
Harlequins are fifth in the standings, London Irish eighth and Northampton ninth. Worcester are bottom after four rounds.
Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru,; Editing by Ed Osmond/Peter Rutherford
