Covid-19 hits Sports Hostel
A Gymnastic Coach attached to the Sports Ministry, who had been recently appointed as Welfare Coordinator between the Ministry and Athletes (where members of the National Athletics team and coaches are staying),had been using the Torrington Sports hostel dining facility during the past few days.
The official has now been tested positive for COVID-19 and the five first contacts put in quarantine in the same premises.
Director General of Institute of Sports Medicine, Dr. Lal Ekanayaka, has sent him, two other Sports Ministry coaches, a masseur and two athletes in the same vehicle to IDH for PCR Testing, where the said official had tested positive. Everybody else who travelled in the same vehicle is now under quarantine on a different section of the hostel, where they will be subject to PCR Testing after a week.
Ceylon Today learns other athletes too will be subject to PCR Testing and may be placed in quarantine as there may have been in contact. Contact tracing has commenced to determine where the said official could have possibly been infected in the first place. He has been working closely with Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa.
The Sports Ministry gym is also temporarily out of bounds as one of the coaches who works at the gym, too,is in quarantine presently.
We revealed about protocol being breached by the Department of Sports Development (DSD) by letting one of their employees stay in the Sports hostel, where the said employee was put in quarantine after being a first contact of a COVID-19 positive person. He has undergone a PCR Test and awaiting results.
Earlier the Ministry stated that they follow strict protocol when it comes to Sports hostels where athletes and coaches won’t be allowed to go outside other than for training,and they intend to keep them under some sort of bio bubble kind of situation with minimum contact with the outside world. But with several officials starting to use the hostel premises freely, coming and going at will from their home, as well as the Ministry allowing their employees to stay in the hostel, authorities may have put Athletes’ safety in jeopardy.
