POC to send home coach who tested positive for COVID-19
Philippine flag outside the Olympic village in Tokyo. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
TOKYO—The Philippine Olympic Committee will send a member of the country’s coaching staff home because of a positive COVID-19 test.
POC president Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino told journalists on Thursday that the coach will be sent home to “mitigate the risks.”
“TOCOG (Tokyo Olympics organizing committee) will isolate him and if he tests positive, he will be sent home,” said Tolentino.
“But we will send him home anyway because it’s difficult … and it will affect everybody and the athletes.”
The coach was initially tagged as a false positive before further tests confirmed the positive infection.
Tolentino did not identify the coach in an effort to keep athletes’ morale from being affected by the incident and also to protect the coach.
Undergoing daily tests at the Athletes’ Village here, the coach was initially tagged with a positive result. A confirmatory test performed while he was put in isolation later turned out to be negative and he was tagged a false positive.
A third test the following day, however, yielded another positive result. The coach is currently running a fever.
“While waiting for another confirmatory test, I have ordered our chef de mission Mariano Araneta to separate him from our team. If he again tests positive, he will be brought to a quarantine hospital (before he can be sent home),” said Tolentino.
Armed with two negative RT-PCR tests, the coach passed the rigid screening at the Narita airport.
“The coach must have gotten it on the plane or at the airport, during the incubation period,” said Tolentino.
“To further mitigate the risks to the Philippine team, we have decided to separate the coach from the delegation,” said POC secretary-general Edwin Gastanes.
