India’s Winter Olympic contingent COVID-free, manager returns negative

Mohammad Abbas Wani tested COVID-19 positive when he arrived at the Beijing Airport on Wednesday. The IOA president, Narinder Batra said that the official has now confirmed negative in the last two tests.

On Thursday, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said that a day after testing positive for the virus, the manager of India’s Winter Olympics, Mohammad Abbas Wani have gotten negative results in two retests conducted in the past 24 hours.

Wani tested COVID-19 positive when he arrived at the Beijing Airport on Wednesday. The IOA president, Narinder Batra said that the official has now confirmed negative in the last two tests.

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“The manager of the Indian team Mr Abbas Wani tested negative in the two tests done on him in the last 24 hours. Hence the entire Indian contingent in Beijing is COVID-free”, said Batra to PTI. Batra further thanks Mr Harinder Singh (Chef de Mission), the Indian Embassy in China, and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for taking care of everyone.

Wani is a part of the six-member Indian delegation at the Winter Olympics where Arif Khan, the Jammu and Kashmir skier is at present the only athlete from India to have qualified this time. Arif will be participating in Slalom and Giant Slalom events during the games scheduled to be held from February 4 to 20.

The contingent also comprises alpine coach Ludar Chand Thakur, technician Puran Chand and team official Roop Chand Negi. In the hotel, an asymptomatic Wani remained quarantined in his room before the retest resulted that he is not positive for the virus.