Premier League reveals latest Covid cases as Leeds United and rivals head into break

The Premier League have confirmed that between Monday January 17 and and Sunday January 23, 6,221 COVID-19 tests were carried out on players and club staff and of these, there were 16 new positive cases.

This is the fourth week in a row the number of positive results has decreased, and the lowest number of positives in a week since early December.

A Premier League statement said: "The safety of everyone remains a priority and the Premier League is taking all precautionary steps in response to the impact of the Omicron variant. The League has reverted to its Emergency Measures, and has increased testing of players and club staff.

"The Premier League’s COVID-19 Emergency Measures include protocols such as wearing face coverings while indoors, observing social distancing, limiting treatment time, as well as the increased testing. The League is continuing to work with clubs to keep people safe by helping mitigate the risks of COVID-19 within their squads.

"We are also liaising closely with the Government, local authorities and supporter groups, while being responsive to any future changes to national or local guidance."

Covid-19 postponements have left clubs, including Leeds, playing catch up on Premier League fixtures. The Whites had two games called off over Christmas and the Premier League is yet to confirm when those fixtures, against Liverpool and Aston Villa, will take place.

Since the festive period Leeds have been battling an extensive injury crisis and having to fill the bench with Under 23s youngsters, including 15-year-old Archie Gray, but with no Covid-19 cases have not been able to ask for further postponements.

While there have been suggestions that Covid-19 postponements have been taken advantage of by some clubs due to their injury problems and the African Cup of Nations, Bielsa said last week he trusted the game's authorities to ensure the rules were followed.

"The important thing is to trust those who administer the rules in that sense because there’s rules that define whether a game or cannot be suspended, and the condition you have to demonstrate for the game to be suspended, and because I trust in those who administer these decisions, and so I trust that when games were suspended, they met the criteria for them to be suspended," he said.

"The question is not do the clubs take advantage of the rules, but it’s the question of if those who evaluate them do well or badly. For a club to take advantage, there has to be an evaluation that was wrong or mistaken, because the rules have to be sufficiently clear.

"We’ve asked for games to be suspended when the rules gave us the opportunity to have those games suspended. We haven’t asked to suspend games when we haven’t had the reality which would allow that to happen."

Burnley have been the worst affected, with postponements due to Covid-19 outbreaks at opposition clubs as well as at Turf Moor, leaving them six games in hand on Chelsea.