That's exactly what I mean. It's the right time with the internationals coming up. We don't want any more infections, but to be honest it might be too late
I don't think Shaqiri has been anywhere near the club for a while. He hasn't been training with the team. He has likely picked up the virus in Switzerland and will self isolate there. Thiago possibly brought the virus with him as he tested positive within days of arriving. Mané is self isolating. If any others get it in the next few days then the club can look into whether it is spreading amongst the players. If no others get it then it's probably safe to say it's been contained.
Possibly, we just don't know. At the beginning of September, 6 unnamed Chelsea players tested positive, it didn't stop the team playing. Also Laporte and Mahrez tested positive at the same time. We will have to wait and see.
With regard to the whole club going into self isolation, that's pretty much how they've been working since the return. They have their own bubble. It's a shame that the very robust protocol that has kept them all clean throughout has now been breached, possibly by the incoming players. It's too much of a coincidence not to be.
I assume they've been going home to family, not just the players but the staff. A close colleague of mine caught it from her daughter, who it transpires caught it from her friend and the whole family has been bad with it. Also there isn't much in the way of social distancing on the pitch. You see people wearing masks but then there are hugs etc. The problem is how far do you go without binning off the football altogether?
I don't think it will come to shutting it down. Those infected will carry on self isolating. Thankfully none of the players have been sick with it, most positives have been asymptomatic which is good. Self isolating as and when seems to be working. There were 10 positives this week in the PL. If it was super spreading we would see more cases because as you say there's lots of hugging going on during games. If there's a sudden leap we will know that the measures taken need looking at again. It seems unlikely at this point. It's up to clubs and players to make themselves known should they want to. It seems most aren't doing that so there may have been clubs with multiple positives who haven't made it public. Chelsea did have 6 positives about 4 weeks ago. It doesn't look to have disadvantaged them.
I think the best thing to do would be for all the players to fly off to different countries, mix with other players for a week or two and then come back again.
I was going to respond to this with a laughing smiley but it's not funny really is it. Do we have an Unbelievable Jeff smiley?
Wait a minute, you're not supposed to get a test unless you have symptoms. Are the players and staff in all the clubs being routinely tested then, when even NHS staff (me included) can't even get a test unless we show symptoms? There's nothing good about being asymptomatic because the next person they pass it to might not be so lucky.
All PL clubs are tested twice a week I think which is why the asymptomatic cases are being caught. If they weren't tested they wouldn't know they had it and would be spreading it. When I said it was good that most positives were asymptomatic I meant in terms of players and staff not actually being sick. Some of the symptoms are horrendous and I'm glad that they're not going through that.
The friendlies probably aren't but the competitive games have to be played for the same reason the league had to be finished. Money.