OdishaPlus Bureau

Indian hockey striker Mandeep Singh has tested positive for COVID-19. He is, however, asymptomatic.

Striker Mandeep Singh

Sports Authority of India (SAI) said in a statement on Monday said, “Mandeep Singh, a member of the Indian men’s hockey team, who was given the COVID-19 test (RT PCR) along with 20 other players at the National Camp at SAI’s National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, has tested COVID-19 positive, but is asymptomatic.”

The statement also added that he is being administered treatment by doctors, along with the other five players who have tested positive.”

Earlier, captain Manpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Varun Kumar and Krishan Pathak had also been diagnosed with COVID-19 upon arrival at the centre for the hockey national camp which began on August 4.

SAI earlier made it mandatory for all athletes, who came back to the camp to take a rapid COVID-19 test upon arrival. Since all the athletes who tested positive had traveled together, there is a high risk that they contracted the virus while travelling from their hometowns to Bengaluru.

All four had tested negative in the rapid test. However, since Manpreet and Surender began to display some Covid symptoms later, they along with other ten athletes who had traveled together were given the Quantitative RT-PCR test on Thursday, and the four have been found to be Covid positive.