Six hockey players test positive for Covid-19 hospitalized in Bengaluru
All the six hockey players, including Mandeep Singh who has tested positive for Covid-19, have been admitted to a multispecialty hospital in Bengaluru on Tuesday. The national camp which should have been underway by now has been stalled due to the surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
Unlike other sports, the Indian Men’s and Women’s hockey team were stationed at the SAI center in Bengaluru for the majority of the lockdown period and were undergoing training camps, following which they were given a break for few weeks. The camps were once again set to resume in the Bengaluru from early August, but the recent spike in the number of Covid-19 cases pushed back the date by at least a week. In was no sooner that six of the men’s hockey players including skipper Mandeep Singh has tested positive for Covid-19, which was a bigger setback for the camp.
The captain along with Jaskaran Singh, Surender Kumar, Varun Kumar and Krishnan B Pathak have tested positive for the virus and as per recent developments, with all of them have been shifted to a multispecialty hospital in Bengaluru by the Sports Authority of India, on Tuesday. Each of the affected players was part of a 10-member group that travelled together from New Delhi.
"The decision to hospitalize them was taken so as to ensure that the players were attended to at all times and could be given the best possible treatment," stated Sports Authority of India (SAI).
According to sources, the number of positive cases could rise as the tests for all the men’s players are not declared yet, while it was learned that many of the players have breached protocols during the break which should not have been the case. On the other hand, the women’s team have all tested negative for Covid-19 and have been given a go-ahead to resume practice.