New guidelines and relaxations for Indian athletes heading to the Tokyo Olympics
Certain relaxations in the Covid test information has been made by the Olympic Organising Committee for India
In a new set of rules that have been set out for the Indian contingent, athletes will now only have to upload Covid 19 Negative RT-PCR tests for 96 and 72 hours before leaving for Tokyo. The reports can only be taken from valid and recognized centers that are mandated by the Japanese Embassy in India and recognized by the Olympic Organizing Committee.
Moreover, prior to the departure, athletes will be able to test themselves in centers set up by the Indian Olympic Association. They will also not have to upload their health reports to the Organizing Committee health app. This basically means that the monitoring time for athletes remains the same at 14 days, but the data uploaded will now be done only for 7 days. It was earlier a cause of concern that had been taken up by Indian Olympic officials. The requisite information that is sent to the immigration office will be checked and a QR code will be generated. It will be checked at the airport following which athletes will have to answer certain questions. This will clear them to board the flight.
As per information provided by the deputy chef-de-mission Dr. Prem Verma, there are a total of 13 labs that are recognized around India as valid testing centers. The labs are accredited and recognized by the National Health Authority and the government. They have also provided the facilities of not making athletes move out of the bio bubbles where labs can directly collect the swab samples from the training centers of the athletes.
India had been identified as a country that had to undergo a mandatory quarantine period upon arrival at the games village. They also had to be tested every day for 7 days and were not allowed to be in touch with individuals from other countries.