Alongside the record nine Olympic quotas they won at the Asia Oceania Olympic qualifiers in Amman, the Indian boxing team that arrived in New Delhi carried another item of importance -- a clearance certificate from the Jordanian medical committee that they weren't showing any symptom of the COVID-19 virus, which has infected almost 137,000 people worldwide.
While Jordan has reported only a single confirmed case of the virus so far, the fact that the boxing team had travelled there after a training camp in Italy -- a country badly hit by the virus -- was a cause for concern. On Wednesday, the Indian government had issued a travel advisory imposing a quarantine period of a minimum of 14 days on travellers returning from Italy and a number of other coronavirus-affected countries.
What worked in the team's favour was that the advisory was to go into effect at 5:30 pm on Friday, while the squad had arrived early on Friday morning. At New Delhi airport, they answered questions on their travel history and were advised to self-isolate as well.
"We had to fill up a form in which we had to say which countries we travelled to over the last 28 days. They took our temperatures with handheld devices. This was done for everyone, and not just to the ones coming from Italy," says Mohammad Ali Qamar, chief coach of the women's team. "We left Italy on February 26. We were in Jordan for more than 14 days and we got checked each day that we were there," says Qamar.
At the immigration counter, however, the team was advised to self-isolate and that's what they have been doing so far. "They told us if it was possible to be at home or at the hostel for the next few days," says men's coach KC Kutappa. While the bulk of the squad have returned to their hostels at the Indira Gandhi Stadium (for the women) and the National Institute of Patiala (for the men), six boxers have returned to their homes. "At the hostel, I'd asked the wardens to give single rooms to the boxers at least for the next few days and that has been done," says Kutappa.
The official home isolation guidelines laid down by the government are relatively strict. They say a person should not share any items such as dishes, drinking glasses, cups, eating utensils, towels, bedding etc. with others at home and should wear a mask at all times. The guidelines also say that masks used by patients, care givers and close contacts during home care should be disinfected and then disposed of either by burning or deep burial.
The self-isolation followed by the boxing team isn't particularly strict, though. The players and coaches eat at the hostel mess and carry out their basic fitness routine, too. "If the boxers are at home, they have been told to avoid media interactions or any large functions. The only thing that we have to avoid is being part of large groups. So we can't be part of the regular training. But the boxers do some fitness workouts by themselves. Apart from that it's not very different than a regular day at the hostel, " says Kutappa.
Kutappa says the team expects to stay in this state of self-isolation for about a week, but that eventually they will resume training together. "On the 25th and 26th of March, we have to conduct the selection trials for the World Olympic qualifiers so we will have to start training for that. But at least for the next couple of days we can get a bit of rest," Kutappa says.