COVID-19: Indian Hockey Captain Manpreet Singh, 4 Other Players Test Positive

Besides Manpreet, Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, and Varun Kumar have tested positive. The players were tested when they reported for the national hockey camp in SAI National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Bengaluru.

"This was revealed 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," SAI said in a press statement.

While all five players had initially tested negative in the rapid antigen test, the athletes were subjected to a RT-PCR test on Thursday after Manpreet and Surender showed COVID-19 symptoms.

SAI added that all the athletes were undergoing quarantine as the Health Ministry guidelines and were kept in isolation as a precautionary measure.

The quarantined athletes did not interact with other athletes who were already present at the camp," the statement added.

According to a SAI source, all the players who have tested positive for the virus were part of a 10-member group who have travelled together and hence there are chances of more testing positive, reported NDTV.

"I am self quarantined at the SAI campus and I am very happy with the way SAI authorities have handled the situation...I am doing fine and hope to recover very soon," the 28-year-old Manpreet said in the statement issued by SAI.

"I am very happy that they made testing of athletes mandatory. That proactive step helped in identifying the problem right in time," Manpreet added.