COVID-19: Athletes, staff at SAI NCOEs to be tested weekly; no disruption of Olympic training

Amid the surge in coronavirus cases across India, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has released a new set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to curb the spread in SAI campuses and National Centres of Excellence (NCOEs).

Weekly testing of all athletes, support staff and administration will be conducted and strict quarantine norms have been set up. However, all precautions and norms will be implemented keeping Olympic probable athletes in mind, so that their training does not suffer, with special schedules and staggered timings being drawn up so that there is no interruption in their training.

The new SOP states that the athlete should take an RT-PCR test within 72 hours before arrival and should be allowed in the centre only if the report is negative.

For national campers who are Olympic probables, they will have to follow a 7-day quarantine with training being allowed with appropriate protocols, which will be conducted in staggered timings with supervision by the coach.

Furthermore, an RT-PCR test will be conducted for national campers on the sixth day of quarantine and thereafter, every week. They will be allowed to train if tested negative and will be treated according to state government protocol if tested positive.

Earlier in the day, in a routine coronavirus testing at the SAI centre in Bhopal, 18 people tested positive including eight athletes. But no Olympic-bound player has contracted COVID-19.

The athletes with positive results have been shifted to the hospital while the rest of the 10 confirmed cases are from the support staff. Out of the 181 tests conducted at the SAI Centre, 163 samples resulted negative while 18 cases came with positive results.

( With inputs from ANI )