Chelsea boss Frank Lampard insists safety must take priority after his former England team-mate Steven Gerrard highlighted the role of football in providing people with a distraction during the coronavirus crisis.

Rangers manager Gerrard said he was not aware of "evidence or data to suggest there is a guarantee of improvement" if a 'circuit-breaker' was used to help combat the escalation in Covid-19 cases, adding that the sport gives people "a release" and "something to watch".

Two members of Chelsea's non-playing staff have returned positive results from the latest round of testing and when asked about Gerrard's view, Lampard stressed the importance of protecting people from harm.

"Manchester City had some positives within their training ground. We have had a couple ourselves, but not on the playing staff. That's the current situation."

When asked how safe players and staff feel in the current climate, Lampard said: "Generally probably as safe as the public because of the new surge in numbers we're seeing.

"But we are in a more protected environment, certainly in the workplace. We're now being tested twice a week and that's really important. I don't understand why we went down to once because two is important.

"It seems to me that the situation at the moment is that we go game by game. Games are being called off because of positive tests around the game itself and I understand that. Let's see how it goes because these are uncertain times."