This threatened to happen last year but the nationwide lockdown meant cases among players stopped, as household mixing with others became illegal and the cases went down. Now, society is open but the cases are just as high, and with the fact there is more immunity in society and the booster jab is accelerating, society is currently still open and mixing is still allowed despite soaring cases.
But a positive test for a PL player means the same as it always has and will - they can’t play. So this is only going to get worse unless the PL imposes mixing restrictions on players, at least until the booster rollout has happened.