Pep Guardiola confirmed that more Manchester City have returned more positive Covid-19 tests ahead of their Premier League game with Chelsea.
The Blues have had at least one player missing through Covid for each of their last seven games and a major outbreak last week saw seven first-team players and 14 staff including Guardiola miss the FA Cup trip to Swindon.
While the manager has returned to take training this week and some players have returned from their isolation, the City boss said that there were also others - who did not wish to be named to protect their medical confidentiality - that had since returned positive tests.
"Some people are coming, some are positive again," he said. "When you tested negative twice you come back, otherwise you stay at home isolated - like happened in the last two or three months at all the clubs.
"We have some new cases but they want their privacy so I cannot tell you."
City are one of the few clubs not to have had a game called off as a result of the latest variant, with Leicester's match against Burnley the latest to have an enforced postponement.
Guardiola says that the Covid situation is not new because clubs have been dealing with it for two years, but accepted that decisions on whether to play came down to the Premier League.
"It's a Premier League decision. I'm not involved with every club. I think Covid is all around the world. All around the world the situation is there and will be there for a few months. Hopefully it decreases step by step but it is not true that there is no Covid in this part of the world."
