COVID crisis eases for Australia water polo team

Australian chef de mission Anna Meares says a COVID crisis in the women's water polo team is easing. (Dave Hunt/AAP PHOTOS)

The COVID crisis enveloping Australia's women's Olympic water polo team has eased.

Five players in the 13-strong women's water polo squad tested positive to COVID on the eve of their Olympic campaign in Paris.

But only one member of the squad remains unable to train with teammates ahead of their opening fixture against China on Saturday.

"Four out of the five athletes who were diagnosed yesterday were able to train and the fifth athlete is very close to feeling capable," Australia's chef de mission Anna Meares told reporters on Thursday.

"They have been observing our protocols and have continued to continue with testing the team and we have no further cases to report.

"We are continuing to remind all teams about the protocols and currently they are working."

The athletes who tested positive had been wearing masks and isolating while told not to to visit high-volume areas of the athletes' village.

The Australian team has its own medical testing equipment for illnesses such as COVID-19 and the 'flu.

No Australian athletes from other sports have been impacted.

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