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Cricket Australia will separate Australia and England Ashes players flying to Sydney, ordering an extra chartered flight after the English COVID outbreak.
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Australia and England players will take separate chartered flights to Sydney after the tourists' COVID-19 outbreak grew to seven and sidelined head coach Chris Silverwood.
Silverwood became the third member of England's coaching staff to be impacted by the virus on Thursday, after a family member tested positive and made him a close contact.
The under-fire mentor will now remain in Melbourne and miss the Sydney Test, with his 10 days in isolation only set to end as the match finishes.
Batting coach Graham Thorpe is expected to take over, with bowling counterparts Jon Lewis and Jeetan Patel as well as strength and conditioning boss Darren Veness also isolating.
Cricket Australia hit a further hurdle on Thursday, when match referee and Test legend David Boon also tested positive to the virus.
The NSW-based Steve Bernard will take over as match referee for the SCG Test in his place.
Meanwhile players and family members from both teams were originally meant to fly together to Sydney on Friday for the Test, as they had done after Brisbane and Adelaide.
However AAP has been told Cricket Australia has since split the squads following England's outbreak earlier this week.
The groups will also travel on separate buses before arriving at a eastern suburbs hotel booked out exclusively for both sets of players and their families.
Officials remain hopeful the England outbreak will somehow be contained to non-playing members of the group.
Silverwood was at England training with around 10 players on Wednesday morning, but has since tested negative to the virus.
The latest case now marks the third jump in numbers.
A member of the family group felt unwell on Christmas Day with rapid tests the next morning returning a positive result.
The entire 60-strong touring party was then rapid tested on the morning of day two, with all players returning negative but a total of four cases among the tour party.
Those four results were then backed up by PCR tests later that night, along with a further two cases in non-playing members of the group.
"I don't think it's particularly unexpected (with the amount of cases in the community)," Australia's chief selector George Bailey said.
"There's been a power load of work, I wouldn't be across a quarter of it, behind the scenes to ensure the series can go ahead.
"The positive thing so far is no players have tested positive and both teams have some depth in their squads."
Both England and Australia players are being tested daily under a new regime introduced following the initial positive case, with the rest of the series remaining under some threat.
Cricket Australia is adamant the Sydney Test can go ahead as planned, despite rapidly rising case numbers in the city.
Crowds at this stage are also expected to remain as unrestricted, with that decision in the hands of the NSW government.
