COVID-19 outbreak hits Japanese team at women’s curling worlds

The Associated Press

A COVID-19 outbreak on the Japanese team at the women’s curling world championships forced them to compete one player down in one match and forfeit another. The team skipped by Ikue Kitazawa had been in playoff contention heading into the final day of the round-robin before losing to first-place Switzerland in the morning. The team then decided to forfeit against South Korea on Friday afternoon, its final match of the preliminary round. The World Curling Federation said in a statement that the other players tested negative, but decided to forfeit to avoid the “possibility of further positive results impacting the competition.”