The Chinese Women’s football team, comprising 32 members, arrived in Brisbane on the morning of 29 January 2020. The purpose of the visit is to participate in the Olympic Football Qualifiers Tokyo 2020, to be held in Sydney from 3 to 9 February.

The qualifier competition, originally to be played in Wuhan on the said dates, was moved to Nanjing and then to Sydney due to the escalating situation of the coronavirus spreading rapidly across China.

The team left Wuhan on 22 January before the city was locked down, and then moved to Suzhou, a Shanghai neighbourhood city for pre-match training. It then flew from Shanghai directly to Brisbane after the decision taken by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to change the venue for a second time, on 26 January 2020.

Prior to traveling to Australia on 27 January, all team members passed an nCoV screening at the Suzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Suzhou CDC) by following the latest technical guidance for laboratory testing for phenomena caused by the Novel Coronavirus infection as issued by the Chinese National Health Commission. The examination result showed that all samples are negative.

After arrival in Brisbane, the team strictly followed the rules and regulations of Australian and Queensland health authorities and was placed in isolation in the hotel until now. All the players and staff members are in good health condition.

The team understands the concern of the Queensland government, the media and local people over the risk of coronavirus affection and will work closely with all stakeholders to fulfill all quarantine requirements.

The team appreciates the support from Football Federation Australia and the Queensland authorities, and is convinced that a solution will be found by joint efforts to ensure the team’s training activities in preparation for the competition.

(edit：赵宇鑫)