Mandeep Singh becomes sixth Indian hockey player to test positive for COVID-19

Mandeep Singh, a member of the Indian Men's Hockey team, who had taken the COVID test (RT PCR) along with 20 other players at the National Camp at SAI's National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, has tested COVID positive but is asymptomatic. He is being administered treatment by doctors, along with the other five players who have tested positive.

Earlier, five Indian hockey players, including captain Manpreet Singh, had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday and were doing well with mild symptoms of the respiratory disease.

READ | Hockey captain Manpreet and four other players showing only 'mild symptoms': SAI doctors

Apart from Manpreet, Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh and Varun Kumar, who reported to the National Hockey Camp in Sports Authority of India's National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Bengaluru along with the team, after a home break, have tested COVID positive.

According to SAI, they were being attended to by its in-house doctor as well as one doctor from the state government, who has been deputed on SAI's request. Additionally, SAI has got onboard expert doctors from Manipal Hospital, who have also attended to the players.

READ | Five Indian hockey players with mild COVID-19 symptoms doing well: Chief Coach

“I am constantly in touch with all five of them and they are doing fine. SAI (Sports Authority of India) 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,” chief coach Graham Reid said from Bangaluru on Saturday.

Two SAI officers have been earmarked to exclusively monitor the athletes and cater to their requirements and ensure that the five athletes have 24-hours access to the SAI authorities on campus.

"The vitals of the players like temperature, oxygen levels have been monitored and all five players have been found to be mild symptomatic cases. Except for one, the other four players did not have a fever. They are doing fine and we have put them on immunity boosters and other support medicines," Dr. Avinash HR, who has been deputed by the state government and diagnosed the players, said.

READ | Odisha's HPC for hockey to induct 30 boys, says state minister

Routine investigations as per protocol were conducted by doctors till their vitals are normal again. 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. 

All the players had tested negative in the rapid antigen test. However, since Manpreet and Surender began to display some COVID symptoms later, they along with the 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.

READ |Michael Nobbs, former India hockey coach, beats lung cancer after a long six-month battle