Novak Djokovic tested positive for the Coronavirus on December 16th, at least that is according to court papers filed by his legal team in Melbourne.
The positive diagnosis became the reason why Djokovic was granted a medical exemption for the vaccine mandate at the
Australian Open. Despite Tennis Australia being told by the local authorities that such exemptions would not suffice for unvaccinated players entering the country, Djokovic and others were still led to believe it would be enough.
The matter will be settled in court on Monday but the circumstances around Djokovic's positive test are still quite puzzling. The court filing isn't totally clear on if December 16 was the date the PCR test was administered or if it was the day he got his results back (or both, results can often be gotten within hours now). The document simply states: "the date of the first positive COVID PCR test was recorded on 16 December 2021".
Now the date in question is key because even if Djokovic got a positive test by then it was still too late to apply for the exemption he ultimately applied for and was granted. The rules set out by the event and TA specified that players needed to apply for an exemption by December 10th, which again points to irregularities within the process.
Djokovic himself has engaged in very questionable behaviour at the time of his alleged positive test. On December 16th he, in addition to purportedly getting a PCR test for Covid that came back positive, was also was part of a maskless, indoor panel discussion and attended a maskless, indoor ceremony for a stamp being made in his honour on that day.
A day after that Djokovic attended an award ceremony for children at the Novak Tennis Center. Many posts from the kids there posing for pictures with him that day, again maskless indoors. According to the report filed to the court, Djokovic knew of his positive test on December 16th and still attended a kids event maskless indoors the following day.
