Hockey captain Manpreet Singh, 4 other players test positive for Covid-19

Five hockey players, including captain Manpreet Singh, who reported for the national camp here at the SAI South Centre, tested positive for the coronavirus, a development that may throw the training programme into uncertainty.

The other four players who tested positive for Covid-19 are Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Varun Kumar and Krishan B Pathak.

"All four tested (five) negative in the rapid test. However, since Manpreet and Surender began to display some Covid symptoms later, they along with other ten athletes who had travelled together were given the Quantitative RT-PCR test on Thursday, and the four (five) have been found to be Covid positive," said a statement from the SAI.

"Though the test results have still not been handed over to SAI, the state government has informed the test results to the SAI authorities and a few test results are still awaited. Since all the athletes who tested positive had travelled together, there is a high likelihood that they contracted the virus while travelling from their hometowns to Bengaluru."

SAI claimed that all necessary precautions have been taken so that other players are not affected. "All athletes, including Manpreet, who reported to camp were undergoing quarantine as per the Health Ministry Guidelines and as a precautionary measure were kept in isolation to arrest the possibility of transmission of the virus. The quarantined athletes did not interact with other athletes who were already present at the camp."

A SAI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said calling off the camp is too premature a talk. "The camp anyways was bound to begin only after the quarantine period. We've taken enough measures to ensure all players stayed in isolation and they continue to do so. More results are awaited and if they turn out negative, then I don't see why the camp can't go ahead as planned. It's too early to suggest that the camp should be called off."

The men’s group has 33 players and eight coaches while the women’s contingent has 24 players and seven coaches. According to SAI, all have reported for the camp which started on August 4.

Meanwhile, Manpreet hoped to recover soon. "I am self quarantined on the SAI campus and I am very happy with the way SAI authorities have handled the situation. I am very happy that they made the testing of athletes mandatory. That proactive step helped in identifying the problem right in time. I am doing fine and hope to recover very soon.”