Indian hockey striker Mandeep Singh has become the latest member of the Indian men's hockey team to test positive for the novel coronavirus. He is, however, asymptomatic.
"Mandeep Singh, a member of the Indian men's hockey team, who was given the COVID-19 test (RT PCR) along with 20 other players at the National Camp at SAI's National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, has tested COVID-19 positive, but is asymptomatic," Sports Authority of India (SAI) said in a statement on Monday.
"He is being administered treatment by doctors, along with the other five players who have tested positive," it added.
Earlier, captain Manpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Varun Kumar and Krishan Pathak had also been diagnosed with COVID-19 upon arrival at the centre for the hockey national camp which began on August 4.
Coach Graham Reid had however said that all the five tested players were doing fine.
"I am constantly in touch with all five of them and they are doing fine. SAI has made every arrangement to give them the best care. The chefs are making special dishes for them as per their choice, beyond the mess menu, and the athletes are very happy about it," Reid said.
"I am self quarantined on the SAI campus and I am very happy with the way SAI authorities have handled the situation," Manpreet had said. "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."
The earlier lot of 5 players tested positive since as a proactive step, SAI made it mandatory for all athletes, who reported back to the camp to take a rapid COVID-19 test upon arrival. 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.
All four had tested 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 have been found to be Covid positive.
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