COVID-19: Five para-athletes undergoing quarantine at Paralympic Centre Of Excellence

KUALA LUMPUR: Five national para-athletes are undergoing quarantine at the Kampung Pandan Paralympic Centre of Excellence here after they were confirmed of being infected with COVID-19 through tests done yesterday.

Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) president Datuk Seri Megat D. Shahriman Megat Zaharudin said he was informed that all the athletes would remain under quarantine until they were cleared of having the disease through a second test.

"(I understand) they have undergone quarantine there (Paralympic Centre of Excellence) and some athletes have been segregated by floor and they cannot move (freely)," he told Bernama, today.

Commenting further, Megat Shahriman said that the National Sports Council (MSN) had also issued guidelines for several coordinators at the centre to monitor the movement of the athletes.

He stressed that the PCM would comply with the directives of the NSC and the Ministry of Health to ensure the safety of national para-athletes.

MSN director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail in a statement yesterday confirmed that seven national athletes, including five para-athletes, were confirmed positive for COVID-19 after undergoing tests prior to the start of the centralised training camp.

The positive cases involved two from athletics wheelchair tennis (two), wheelchair basketball (two) and a hearing-impaired tenpin bowling athlete, as a boccia official.

A total of 466 of the 735 athletes under the Podium Programme and national back-up athletes and officials have undergone swab tests at their respective training centres, coordinated by MSN and the National Sports Institute.

-- BERNAMA