ITALY’S top soccer league announced Wednesday that four games scheduled for Thursday were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Serie A said four games — Atalanta vs Torino, Bologna vs Inter-Milan, Fiorentina vs Udinese, and Salernitana vs Venezia — would not be played as scheduled Thursday after some players and staffers involved in the game tested positive for COVID-19.

The cancellations are the first of the current season, though the 2020-2021 season was shortened due to anti-coronavirus measures.

A fifth game scheduled for Thursday, Juventus vs Napoli, will be played as scheduled, but at least three players will sit the game out because they have not taken the required health measures to be eligible, the Serie A said.

According to media reports, the games could be rescheduled if they will have an impact on the championship when the season is over.

Earlier Wednesday, the league issued a statement saying all the games would go forward as scheduled despite a rising tide of COVID-19 infections.

But it changed its tune later in the day and announced the cancellation of the four games.

Italy’s health ministry reported a new record of more than 189,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from over 170,000 cases a day earlier.

According to Newsweek magazine, around one in 10 Serie A players are currently positive with COVID-19 infections.

(Xinhua)