Premier League insists it can survive coronavirus surge as clubs record 40 new positive COVID-19 tests

Players and staff in England's top division recorded double the number of positives as in the previous testing period

The Premier League insists it will be able to continue as normal after 40 new coronavirus tests in players and staff were recorded across the English top flight.

A total of 28 cases were recorded in Premier League staff and players from 1,311 tests between Monday, December 28 and the end of 2020. A further 12 positives were found in 984 tests between January 1 and January 3. 

Compared to the previous week the proportion of positives within the competition has grown from 1.2 percent to 1.7 percent.

Having previously set a new high for the period December 21-27 the number of new positives within the league more than doubled from 18 as several fixtures were called off due to COVID-19 cases within clubs.

Fulham have postponed two matches against Tottenham and Burnley as they battle to stop the spread at their club whilst Manchester City's game against Everton was called off on December 28. The Citizens had to close their training ground and saw five members of their first-team squad test positive for coronavirus. However, they were able to fulfil their game against Chelsea on Sunday.

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Despite the surge in cases the Premier League believes it can continue as planned. Having last week insisted that no talks had taken place over a temporary pause of football in England the competition won the support of the government to continue through the lockdown that British prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday night.

A statement said: "With low numbers of positive tests across the overwhelming majority of clubs, the League continues to have confidence in its COVID-19 protocols, fully backed by the Government, to enable fixtures to be played as scheduled."

During the festive period there were several high-profile cases of Premier League footballers breaching lockdown regulations. Among those were Tottenham trio Sergio Reguilon, Erik Lamela and Giovanni Lo Celso, West Ham's Manuel Lanzini, Serbian internationals Luka Milivojevic and Aleksandar Mitrovic and Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy.

Punishment for those players is at the discretion of individual clubs rather than the league or English Football Association. Several were part of the matchday squads for subsequent fixtures.

Meanwhile teams in the EFL Championship, League One and League Two are undergoing mandatory testing this week ahead of the FA Cup third round. Many players in the lower tiers of English football have not been tested since the November international break.