COVID Scare: Hockey Player Tests Positive, To Return Home From Commonwealth Games

Birmingham: A day after the Indian women’s hockey team kicked off their Commonwealth Games 2022 campaign with a resounding 5-0 win over Ghana, there was a scare in the camp as Navjot Kaur tested COVID-positive.

The 27-year-old midfielder from Kurukshetra will fly back home, with another Haryana girl Sonika Tandi replacing her in the 18-member squad.

“She has been kept in isolation. Her CT value is not infectious and she has no symptom. She tested positive in the first test but in the second test her CT value improved and she can’t infect others. She has been cleared to fly back to India by the organizers,” PTI quoted a team source as saying.

Navjot is a member of the silver-winning team at the Asian Games in Jakarta and bronze winner from Incheon in 2014.

This is the first coronavirus case in the 300-plus Indian contingent at Birmingham. Women cricketers Pooja Vastrakar and S Meghana had tested positive in India but have recovered.

Meghana has joined the team while Pooja is likely to come on board in the next 2-3 days.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has advised the Indian athletes to curtail public appearances and stay indoors as much as possible.

Organizers of Birmingham 2022 said earlier this week that the Games Village was reporting a dozen cases per day.

This is the first multi-discipline event to be held without stringent COVID-19 restrictions since the pandemic broke in early 2020.