Commonwealth Games 2022: Medical advisor says that there is no need to worry about Covid-19
In what could be a norm in the CWG 2022, dozens of athletes are expected to test positive for COVID-19 on a daily basis at the Games. However, that’s not very alarming, assured Commonwealth Games medical advisor, Dr. Peter Harcourt.
More than 5000 athletes from 72 nations and territories will compete in the Games spread over 11 days with the opening ceremony scheduled for Thursday.
“About a dozen a day are returning positive but 1200-1400 athletes go through COVID-19 testing process every day. So it gives you an idea, it’s not a huge number, Dr. Harcourt said at a media conference.
The organizing committee is hopeful of conducting the event smoothly without any roadblocks or with as few roadblocks as possible. The organizing committee wants to ensure that they do the needful and ensure that a safe environment is created for the marquee event.
“Things that we have got in place is there’s an RT-PCR test for individual travel to Birmingham and then there is an RT-PCR test on arrival. If there’s a history of COVID, then the vaccination status of COVID would be scanned, so that we can make a good clear understanding of individuals should they have a positive test. It’s a very comprehensive measure and it’s got good clinical support,” he assured.
Having dealt with COVID-19 cases, he further added: “About a lot of these things, we have got a fair degree of having dealt with it. I’m confident we will be on top of it and we will have successful Games and mini-issues,” he added.
Luck is with the athletes so far because of the low Covid positivity rate and the athletes and the organizers will hope that it stays the same through the tournament and that the conduct of the tournament goes in an orderly way. If things go out of hand, then one thing the organizers could do is stage the games behind closed doors so that the impact of the virus is minimized.
