Two players of the South African soccer team have tested positive for Covid-19 inside the Olympic village. The two players named Thabiso Monyane and Kamohelo Mahlasti, are the first athletes to test positive for the coronavirus at the Olympic village in the capital of Japan.
A video analyst for the team, Mario Masha also tested positive. The two athletes and the video analyst have been in isolation along with their close contacts.
According to the chief medical officer, Dr. Phatho Zondi said every member of Team South Africa tested negative twice using PCR tests within 96 hours of departing for Tokyo.
According to the organizers, 21 south African Players and officials have also been in isolation as they were identified as close contacts. All of them are confined under strict protocols and PCR test is being done daily.
The South African Team Manager Mxolisi Sibam said “we have three positive cases of Covid-19 in the camp here, two players and an official.”
“There is daily screening which included taking temperature and saliva testing”.
South Africa Seven rugby coach Neil Powell also tested positive on Sunday on arriving in Japan and he is under isolation in Kagoshima.
The organizers of the Olympic games had earlier confirmed that 6 new cases, athletes including officials.
The Czech Olympic Committee announced that beach volleyball player Ondrej Perusic had tested positive in the athletes’ village two days after a staff member had tested positive on their arrival in Tokyo on a charter flight from Prague.
The total number of positive cases has reached 62, among the 22,000 accredited people 29 people have arrived from abroad.
The cause of concern in the public of Tokyo is the increasing rate of covid positive cases, 1000 new cases for the fourth consecutive day. According to a poll conducted, this has led the people of Tokyo to oppose the holding of Olympic games as the influx of more people from outside the country would threaten serious consequences.
However, Dr. Brain McCloskey, an expert in emergency planning and led the planning operation for public health services at the London 2012 Olympics, suggested that the risk of the virus spreading during the games is minimal and the positive cases announced over the weekend is a proof to limit and control the further spread of the infection.
He said ” If I thought that all the tests that we did were going to be negative then I wouldn’t have bothered doing the tests in the first place. We do the test because they are a way of filtering out people who might be developing an infection who might become risk later”.
Indian Athletes to begin training from Monday
The first batch of athletes from India after following all the necessary protocols and on completion of the screening process has reached the capital of Japan on Sunday. All the 88 athletes underwent covid testing and were found negative. They will start their training session from Monday onwards.
