DUNFERMLINE have announced that Friday's Fife derby is off because of COVID-19.

In a statement released this afternoon, the club said that they had suffered a "transmission of Covid into our football bubble" and that they cannot fulfill the game at Raith Rovers.

It is not clear how many members of the club's staff have been affected.

The club said: "DAFC can confirm that following last Saturday’s match our club has unfortunately suffered a transmission of Covid into our football bubble.

"Since the weekend we have cooperated fully with the respective authorities to determine fully the extent of the transmission and the individuals who are deemed to be affected.

"As a consequence, we are sadly not in a position to fulfil our fixture against Raith Rovers.

"No further comment will be made on this matter, in order to respect the privacy of the individuals affected, and we wish them and their families well."

The SPFL have also released a statement, which read: "Friday’s Scottish Championship match between Raith Rovers and Dunfermline Athletic at Stark’s Park has been postponed after Dunfermline informed the SPFL they could not fulfil the fixture.

"Dunfermline have informed the SPFL that they have had a confirmed case of COVID-19. The club has been liaising with the Scottish FA, the Elite Sport Clinical Advisory Group and Test and Protect to establish whether any other players or staff will need to self-isolate.

"Dunfermline have now informed the SPFL that, following conclusion of that process and due to the number of players now self-isolating, they have insufficient players to fulfil the fixture.

"As a result, and in line with standard procedure, the SPFL has postponed the fixture pending an investigation into the circumstances leading to the postponement.

"The SPFL will continue to liaise with Dunfermline Athletic in the coming days."

Dunfermline, who were beaten 1-0 at Queen of the South at the weekend, had recently been without winger Dom Thomas because of a positive Covid test, but he returned to training last month ahead of the postponed Dundee match on February 13.

That game had been rearranged for Tuesday evening, but will now be in doubt following the news from East End this afternoon.

Speaking to Press Sport ahead of going to print earlier today for tomorrow's (Thursday's) edition, head coach Stevie Crawford had said of his team's injury situation: "It's one thing that over the season I'm usually quite open with in regards to our injuries but I think this week, in regards to going into two games of this magnitude, it's something that I'm going to sit on.

"We've got a competitive squad but I don't want to sit here a couple of days before the game and say this player's going to be ready or this player's going to miss out."

In January, Raith themselves reported an outbreak of the virus, which led to the postponement of a match with Inverness Caledonian Thistle.