National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail assures national athletes and coaches have got nothing to worry after a sepak takraw coach tested negative for Covid-19.
Shapawi said the coach was a person under investigation (PUI) and his pink bracelet – to indicate a person is under quarantine – had been cut by the Health Ministry recently.
Yesterday, Twentytwo13 reported that national hockey coach A. Arul Selvaraj and two other coaches – Mohd Amin Rahim and Wallace Tan – were in self-isolation since Monday as they had been in contact with another PUI who is attached with the National Sports Institute.
The dietician has since tested negative for the disease.
“There are no positive cases in Bukit Jalil. If there was one, we would have issued a statement and closed down the area (for sanitisation work),” said Shapawi.
“The sepak takraw coach tested negative. The Health Ministry has allowed him to resume his daily activities. He was just a PUI and didn’t have the coronavirus.”
Shapawi said he too underwent quarantine recently, as he was in a meeting room with someone classified as ‘PUS’ – person under surveillance.
A PUS is someone who has a history of visiting or residing in affected countries but not admitted.
“Even though I fell under the fourth-tier, I still had to quarantine myself.
“This could happen more often with others as the number of cases increase,” Shapawi added.
“There is no reason to panic. We have everything under control. Even the athletes are under what we call ‘quarantine training’ – meaning they don’t mix around with the others.”
He said this ‘bubble’ was to safeguard their health and was being practised by those undergoing centralised training.
