On 14 December 2021, it was announced that South African swimmers residing in South Africa would not be able to compete in the championships, due to travel bans resulting from the prevalence of the
Omicron variant of
COVID-19, which is the
World Health Organization's latest “variant of concern.” On 16 December 2021, FINA informed the Singapore Swimming Association (now
Singapore Aquatics) that its entire squad will not be able to compete in the championships due to contact tracing protocols, after four of the country's swimmers tested positive for COVID-19 while in Abu Dhabi. On 17 December 2021, FINA confirmed seven accredited participants with positive COVID-19 results, which included at least one administrator from Nigeria, and that in turn knocked out all four of Nigeria's swimmers from the meet. This raised questions about its protocols, as some swimmers from other nations such as Great Britain and the United States were allowed to continue competing despite members of those teams testing positive for COVID-19. By the end of the championships on 21 December 2021, FINA provided a cap number of 40 individuals who tested positive in the duration of the meet. Later the exact number of COVID-19 positive accounts was provided, 37 cases total out of all 5,000 individuals involved with the competition, 15 of which were athlete cases. ==References==