Dr. Prem Verma, the delegation’s deputy chef-de-mission told TOI on Thursday that the Indian athletes travelling to Tokyo for the Olympics will only need to upload COVID-19 negative RT-PCR test reports for 96 hours and 72 hours before their departure for the games. For the rest of the days, the athletes and coaching staff aren’t required to upload a status report of their tests on the OC’s health monitoring app.
The athletes can get themselves tested at one of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) identified diagnostic centres in places where they are currently based or training at the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) regional centres. The athletes aren’t required to upload or carry reports of these RT-PCR tests, not even for 48 hours before departure, but have been advised by Verma to keep a physical record with themselves.
Dr Verma explained, “Earlier, it was compulsory that 14 days before their departure to Tokyo, the athletes had to upload daily health records on the mobile app. Now, the uploading period has been reduced to only seven days. This signifies that you’ll have to monitor your health for 14 days but need to upload data for seven days. Once an athlete uploads, it will automatically reach the immigration office and a QR code will be generated on the athletes’ smartphone. That QR code will be checked at the immigration when the athletes report at the airport. After clearing the immigration, another set of questions about the customs will have to be answered. After answering them, another QR code will be generated. The athletes will show it to the Customs and, if everything is clear, they will board the flight.”
