Commonwealth Games 2022: PV Sindhu forced to isolate upon arrival in Birmingham due to Covid scare
PV Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medalist, had a Covid scare upon her arrival at Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games 2022. Her RT PCR results showed some signs of worry, which made the authorities isolate her for the time being as a precautionary measure.
The former world champion’s second test though came negative, following which she was allowed to enter the Games village on Tuesday.
According to a report in The Times of India, due to the ‘invariability’ in Sindhu’s first RT-PCR test, the Indian Olympic Association delayed announcing the name of its flag-bearers for the CWG 2022 opening ceremony. As per the report, Sindhu’s RT-PCR test didn’t return the results that were expected. Till the time the authorities gained more clarity, the badminton star was asked to isolate.
On Thursday night, Sindhu and India men’s hockey team captain Manpreet Singh was named as India’s flag-bearer for the ceremony to be held on Thursday.
“All our players have cleared the tests, there is no positive case in the Indian Contingent,” informed Rajesh Bhandari, Chief of Mission of the Indian team, on Wednesday evening.
As per CWG 2022 rules, all athletes must undergo an RT-PCR test for detecting covid-19 72 hours before they arrived in the UK and then upon reaching, there will be another test in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, the Games have been hit by a spate of Covid positive cases with more than a dozen positive cases daily in the last few days. This comes on the back of reports of the committee for the Commonwealth games saying that there is no cause for alarm as there is a low rate of Covid positive cases.
The United Kingdom government has removed all travel restrictions for people travelling to the country for the Commonwealth Games.
The Birmingham 2022 Games are being held with very relaxed Covid-19 protocols, with only the sportspersons and support staff asked to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before departure and another after arrival in Birmingham.
